Brian Tyree Henry on Bringing the Story of Boxer Claressa Shields to the Screen in 'The Fire Inside' | Variety Studio at TIFF 2024 - video Dailymotion

Director Rachel Morrison and actors Bryan Tyree Henry and Ryan Destiny discuss 'The Fire Inside' at the Variety Studio at TIFF.

Transcript

00:00For me, it truly started with the story, you know, the story of Clarissa Shields is one

00:06that I don't think many of us knew.

00:09And I was very upset about that, like I couldn't believe that here you have this two-time gold

00:15medalist female black boxer from Flint, Michigan that, you know, isn't getting, you know, the

00:20front covers or isn't being heralded as like one of the greatest champs of all time.

00:25And so for me that, it started upsetting and I really wanted to make sure that, you know,

00:32we told the story in a way that felt genuine and true to her, which I knew we were because

00:36Rachel was attached to it.

00:38And then the second part was Ryan, immediately when I saw that she was a part of it, I was

00:43incredibly excited and was like, oh, I cannot wait to see what she's going to do.

00:48And to see her step into this part, because it is a biopic and I was also intrigued by

00:53that because, you know, to play somebody that's living, breathing this real true to

00:57life story, I hadn't done before.

01:00And you know, I think every actor wants to challenge themselves, you know, any actor

01:03worth their weight in salt wants to find the next thing, wants to find a different way

01:07to transition into the next chapter.

01:10And so I felt like, you know, biopic was something that I was afraid of, but I was like, the

01:14fear came out of like true excitement and intrigue.

01:17And once I saw that Rachel was at the helm of it, you know, like this historic champion

01:22first female Academy Award cinematographer in history, I was like, well, there's a theme

01:27here.

01:28There's a theme with this story that I really want to be a part of.

01:32And once I got to know the story of Clarissa and Jason, her coach, it was just a no brainer.

01:37It just seemed like a story that, like you said, we had never seen before.

01:41It had never been told, we'd never seen before.

01:43And I just knew that with Rachel's eye, it was going to be something incredibly visually

01:46stunning, but also lots of pride and heart to it.

01:50So, you know, like I said, these two women were the biggest sell for me.