Sydney Sweeney says she ‘loved’ playing lesbian sports star in upcoming biopic
Sydney Sweeney attends the Echo Valley European Premiere in London (Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Sydney Sweeney attends the Echo Valley European Premiere in London (Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Sydney Sweeney “loved every part” of playing Christy Martin in the upcoming biopic of the lesbian boxer.
Euphoria star Sweeney previously showed off her radical transformation in preparation for the role in the still-untitled film but has now told Bustle she found Martin’s story inspiring.
“She has faced many challenges inside and outside the ring, I was blown away and inspired by her strength, her perseverance and who she is as a woman. Having a character [who] has so many layers and depths, that’s a dream as an actor. I loved every part of it,” said Sweeney, also seen recently in Madame Web.
Commenting on the physical side of the role, she described herself as “very outdoorsy” and “athletic” and said she grew up kickboxing and grappling, so her transformation had been “a dream”.
In a previous interview with W Magazine, Sweeney, who reportedly gained more than 30 pounds to play Martin, said: “I had about three-and-a-half months of training. I started eating, I weight-trained in the morning for an hour, kick-boxed midday for about two hours and weight-trained again at night for an hour.
“I didn’t fit in any of my clothes. I’m usually a size 23 in jeans and I was wearing a size 27. My boobs got bigger. And my butt got huge. It was crazy. It was amazing: I was so strong, like crazy strong.”
Martin was one of the most successful female boxers US history and is credited with putting the women’s sport on the map.
Known as The Coal Miner’s Daughter, a reference to her father, Martin competed professionally from 1989 to 2011, winning 49 of her 59 bouts – 32 by a knock-out – and was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014.
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