Boxing champ Claressa Shields likes to point out that, just like Muhammad Ali, she now has a biopic.
“The Fire Inside,” in theaters now, dramatizes her remarkable journey, from poverty in Flint, Michigan, to being a two-time Olympic boxing Gold Medalist known as “T-Rex.”
Scripted by director Barry Jenkins (he made the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Moonlight”), starring Ryan Destiny, 29, as Claressa and Brian Tyree Henry, 42, as her coach and mentor, “Fire” is a gritty look at how unequal winning Olympic gold is.
If it was incredibly tough for Shields to win the gold in 2012, it was even more difficult surviving – without endorsements – in the aftermath.
For director Rachel Morrison, “Fire” began, “With the fact that Claressa is such a badass force. An incredible athlete,” she said during a virtual press conference. “And I didn’t know about her – and I follow sports. It felt like for me not to know, there was something wrong in the universe. Claressa’s story deserved to be out there.”
“Somebody reached out to me,” Shields, 29, recalled. “I hadn’t even (gone) to the second Olympics yet. They were, ‘We’re huge fans and want to do a movie about your life.’
“I was, ‘Okay’ – and then the price goes up after I win the gold medal again. I was,” she laughed, “we got some negotiating to do.
“Then I was on Google asking, ‘What are movie deals supposed to look like?’ Cause I had no idea. I’m a boxer. Dealing with that, I was new to it.
“I remember just asking them, ‘Where are you gonna start in my life? Where are you going to finish?’ Because I had a documentary ‘T-Rex’ where people left thinking I won a gold medal and that was it.
“No endorsements, no sponsorships, still live in Flint. Still living in poverty. I was, ‘Now with the movie that’s gonna be worldwide, I need it to be where people understand. Don’t leave out any of the bad stuff. Put it all in there.’
“But this isn’t a sad story. This is a very resilient story, a very fateful and a hopeful story.
“I don’t want nobody feeling sorry for me – because I don’t feel sorry for myself. But I want them to know, I went through this. Almost quit here. Almost gave up there.
“But look at where I am now! And being 29 years old. I mean, 15-time world champion. Still active, still undefeated. Greatest woman of all time.
“I need people to understand that this is how powerful the story was. Because everybody doesn’t get a biopic. We’re talking about like Muhammad Ali type stuff.”
