'The Fire Inside': Ryan Destiny gets her star-making moment as PFL, boxing standout Claressa Shields

(This story first appeared in the Detroit Free Press and USA TODAY.)

DETROIT − When a new movie arrives about Flint, Mich., it’s usually yet another documentary on the water crisis that has defined the city in the public eye for the past decade.

But that’s not the case with “The Fire Inside,” a film that may put Flint on the map for beating the odds.

The gritty, compelling biopic tells the story of Claressa Shields, the two-time Olympic boxing champion who has gone on to win all 15 of her matches as a professional.

Shields says it’s “about triumph, victory” and “shows the resilience of the people of Flint.”

“That’s how I got to where I am,” she says.

Shields is 29, but to her hometown, she remains the young girl with an unlikely dream who worked and worked until she made it a reality.

“They still see me as that 11-year-old kid that was walking around … asking for donations to make it to these big tournaments,” she says. “Some people gave one hundred (dollars), some people gave a dollar, some gave 10 cents, some gave prayer. But all of it helped me get to where I am. I always want to pay homage to that.”

On this morning, Shields is sitting on a hotel couch with Ryan Destiny, the rising Detroit actress who portrays her in the film, and Rachel Morrison, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of “Fruitvale Station” and “Black Panther,” who makes her directing debut with “The Fire Inside.”

The three women express their mutual admiration during a conversation about the drama, with Shields providing much of the candor and humor. She says she initially was disappointed to find out the film would open on Christmas Day, not realizing that Dec. 25 is a popular release date for movies considered awards contenders.

“Somebody was like, ‘Claressa, the best movies come out on Christmas Day.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, (expletive), you’re right!” she says as Destiny and Morrison join her in laughter.

Starring Destiny as Shields and Brian Tyree Henry as her coach, Jason Crutchfield, the movie details the obstacles faced by the aspiring young boxer (which include a dysfunctional home environment and financial insecurity) as she goes from learning the basics of the sport at age 11 to competing at the 2012 London Olympics at 17.

Once she brings home the gold and becomes the first U.S. woman to do so, Shields is confronted by another fierce opponent. The young Black female boxer faces the bias that closes the doors to endorsement deals and wider fame. Although she deserves both, Shields knows she won’t get them unless she fights against the gaps in fairness and equity.

Shields would go on to another win at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, becoming the only U.S. boxer, male or female, to earn back-to-back gold medals at the games. By then, she’d been the subject of a documentary, “T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold.” (Shields got the nickname T-Rex early on for her short arms and aggressive punching style.)

“The Fire Inside,” inspired by the documentary, was written by Oscar-winning “Moonlight” filmmaker Barry Jenkins. He also was brought in to possibly direct, but he felt that a woman, specifically Morrison, should be in the directing chair. Morrison already had made Oscar history by becoming the first woman nominated in the cinematography category for 2017’s “Mudbound.”

Filming on “The Fire Inside” began in 2020 and lasted two days before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown went into effect. Shooting resumed two years later, after the project moved from Universal to Amazon MGM.

“The simplest way to put it is that the story of making the movie mirrors a bit of” Shields’ journey, says Morrison of the delays.

When the film finally debuted at Toronto Film Festival in September, it earned strong notices for its emotional impact. The Guardian raved that “this is a living, breathing drama of real people and real emotions and one that therefore has real heft to it.”

Both Destiny, who grew up in Detroit, and Morrison say they felt a bond to Shields’ story, in different ways. “The fact that we’re the same age is crazy,” says Destiny, noting that she, like Shields, began striving for success as a tween.

The actress, who has appeared in the Fox series “Star” and the movie “A Girl Like Grace” with Meagan Good and Garcelle Beauvais, also relates to Shields as a young Black woman from an underdog city. Detroit is “an amazing place to be from,” Destiny says, “but I don’t think people understand or respect it because they don’t know enough about these places (like Detroit and Flint).”

For Morrison, there was resonance in the fact that Shields had to keep proving herself long after a man in the same career path would have. “This idea that it’s not enough just to be good at what you do, but you also have all these other hoops you have to jump through.”

The delays in filming wound up giving Destiny more time for training and honing her ability to convincingly depict Shields in the ring. The actress, who delivers a breakout performance, says transforming herself physically for the role involved “definitely a lot of sweat, definitely a lot of time. Blood, sweat and tears, as you would say. That is definitely how it went for me.”

Shields gives Destiny high marks for realism. “She was doing her scene of running down the street. And people were texting me and calling me, and I was like, ‘What do you guys want?’ And they’re like, ‘Are you in Flint?’ No. ‘Is that not you running down the street?’ No, it’s not. It was one of those moments where (I knew) she was doing a good job.”

Under Morrison’s direction, “The Fire Inside” gives viewers a vivid sense of what Shields was going through internally − and sometimes hiding behind a tough, impassive exterior − on her path to the Olympics. There’s an intimacy and empathy to the film’s focus on Shields that can be missing from classic male-driven boxing dramas. “I really wanted to have the audience feel like they were experiencing it from her perspective,” Morrison says.

Shields says she didn’t interfere with the filmmaking process and trusted Destiny and Morrison to get it right. “I’m a person that believes if we all do our jobs, everybody’s job gets done. I think when we start crossing lines is when stuff gets messed up.”

When Shields finally watched the film at a private screening in Los Angeles, she tried to approach it as a moviegoer, not the main character. She cried at times and clenched her fist at other parts as she felt the emotions being portrayed on the screen. She says she left impressed by the “great job” done by Destiny, Morrison and Jenkins.

Not long after that screening in January, Shields finally was able to meet Destiny in person. Although they previously had talked over the phone, texted and chatted on FaceTime, they had never been face to face. Destiny, who was having a birthday party, asked Shields whether she would like to meet there.

“I thought to myself … ‘Wow, if she hates this, this is going to be really awkward,’ ” Destiny recalls with a laugh.

Not to worry. Shields has nothing but raves for Destiny’s acting. “She did a very great job. The clothing, the confidence, the hair, the ferociousness, the attitude. I had the attitude back then. I still have it now.”

Perhaps her highest praise is that Destiny’s performance was authentic outside and inside the ring. “It shows how great of an actress that she is, because some parts were happy, some were sad, some were tough and rough,” Shields says. “And to see her even when punches are being thrown at her, she’s not blinking. Boxers do that. Real boxers.”

Destiny says she feels changed by the whole experience of “The Fire Inside.” So does Morrison, who says, “You have a real-life superhero right here and we got to tell that story. It was such a gift.”

The movie has a strong message on the power of persistence and believing in yourself. Says Shields: “When I was getting ready for the 2016 Olympics, everybody kept saying, ‘It’s impossible for an American (boxer) to win two Olympic gold medals (back to back). It’s never happened and it’s not going to happen now. Claressa, you’ve got to know that. What you’re trying to do is not possible.”

So Shields wrote down the word “impossible” and kept looking at it. “I said, ‘What is most important about this word? At the beginning of the word impossible is …. I’m.’ You take that off, what does it say? It’s possible.'”

Destiny, sitting to the right of Shields, joins in by saying, “I am possible.”

The fire inside these women is still going strong.