Sydney Sweeney and Christy team promised not to 'Hollywoodize' the true survivor story: 'Everythi...

The real Christy Martin had one request of the filmmakers and writers: &34;Please don't Hollywoodize my life.&34; They didn't. Sydney Sweeney and Christy team promised not to 'Hollywoodize' the true survivor story: 'Everything was pulled from truth' The real Christy Martin had one request of the filmmakers and writers: &34;Please don't Hollywoodize my life.&34; They didn't. By Nick Romano :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/NicholasRomanoauthorphotoadc9b60763e34711935cbf7b3d768d24.jpg) Nick Romano is a senior editor at with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment.

The real Christy Martin had one request of the filmmakers and writers: "Please don't Hollywoodize my life." They didn't.

Sydney Sweeney and Christy team promised not to 'Hollywoodize' the true survivor story: 'Everything was pulled from truth'

The real Christy Martin had one request of the filmmakers and writers: "Please don't Hollywoodize my life." They didn't.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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November 7, 2025 10:00 a.m. ET

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Sydney Sweeney on the set of 'Christy' with director David Michod. Credit:

Black Bear Pictures

- Sydney Sweeney and the real Christy Martin discuss the harrowing true story behind the biopic of a women's boxing trailblazer.

- The one request Martin had for director David Michôd and co-writer Mirrah Foulkes: "Please don't Hollywoodize my life."

- "Everything was pulled from truth. The film is truthful from the very beginning to the end," Sweeney says.

Christy Martin, known in the ring as the Coal Miner's Daughter, made a deal with God after suffering several stabbings and a gunshot to the torso from her ex-husband, James V. Martin, in 2010. The trailblazer of women's boxing promised she would help one person before she died.

"And then I was like, 'No,' 'cause I'm arrogant, 'I wanna help one person every day,'" Martin recalls.

It's a story she tells often, first on stage at the world premiere of her biopic, *Christy*, at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September. She tells it again during a November interview with ** and actress Sydney Sweeney, who portrays Martin on screen. To date, she has already fulfilled that original promise — and then some.

"I actually got a text message from someone who was in the movie that it has saved her life," Martin tells EW. (Sweeney says she received the same text.) "Even to know the people that were in the movie — not the main cast, but just in the movie — it affected them in a positive way, we're doing what we're supposed to."

Christy Martin and Sydney Sweeney at the AFI premiere of 'Christy' in Los Angeles.

LISA O'CONNOR/AFP via Getty

Directed by David Michôd (of the Timothée Chalamet-led *The King*), who also co-wrote the script with Mirrah Foulkes, *Christy* is equal parts underdog sports movie and harrowing survivor's tale.

Starting with Martin's high-school years as a closeted lesbian in a homophobic West Virginian community, the story follows the pioneer's personal life through her swift ascent to the top of women's boxing. It covers her emotionally turbulent relationship with her mother (Merritt Wever); her life with Jim Martin (Ben Foster), who first became her trainer and later her manipulative, abusive husband; and finally coming back to the ring after surviving a near-fatal assault by Jim, who died in 2024 while serving a 25-year sentence for attempted murder.

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Martin had one request of Michôd and Foulkes: "Please do not Hollywoodize my life," she says. She means she didn't want to see anything that didn't actually happen added in for the sake of sensationalizing her story. "[Foulkes] would tell me, 'Enough crazy s--- has happened in your life, we don't have to Hollywoodize it,'" Martin recalls. "The script is real. Once I read the script, I just sat back and watched them do their thing. And boy oh boy...it was pretty amazing."

Sweeney, who also produced the movie, confirms no creative liberties like that were taken. "Everything was pulled from truth," the *Euphoria* and *Anyone But You* star says. "The film is truthful from the very beginning to the end."

Ben Foster as Jim Martin, Sydney Sweeney as Christy Martin in 'Christy'.

Black Bear Pictures

The pair remembers their first meeting over Zoom. Martin acknowledges how difficult it was to sense Sweeney's energy but describes the virtual encounter as positive. They later met in person while in pre-production, after Sweeney began transforming her body through boxing and physical training.

It didn't seem like just another role to Martin. "She wants to do this because she feels like it's important," she comments of Sweeney. "I was 100 percent in, and I was open to share my story, the little details that sometimes aren't easy to talk about."

When it came to the difficult material, the team filmed all the sequences in Martin's house with Jim during the first week of production, according to Sweeney. "We started off right out the gate with the very heavy and crucial moments of Christy's life," the actress remarks.

Christy Martin in the ring (1997).

Andy Lyons/Getty

That Wednesday marked Wever's first day filming as Joyce. It was the scene where Martin first shares with her mom how scared she was of her husband, only for Joyce to turn her away and take Jim's side. "My mother passed in February. It's all real, but it's still hard to see," Martin comments of that moment. "The last thing you want to do is go to your mother for help and not get it. That scene may be harder than the attack for me to actually watch."

Two days later, on that Friday, the team shot Jim attacking Martin with a knife and a gun. Martin wasn't on set for the filming of this moment, "upon the request of everyone, I think," she says. "It protected me."

Sweeney acknowledges that a lot of thought went into that attack sequence. "It was a very heavy week," she comments, "but having a scene partner like Ben and a director like David, you know that you're in good hands 'cause you feel safe with everyone, you trust everyone, and you know that everybody also is handling this with the utmost respect and care. You talk about it, you just go hand in hand, and you dive right in."

Katy O'Brian as Lisa Holewyne, Sydney Sweeney as Christy Martin in 'Christy'.

Black Bear Pictures

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Martin remains overwhelmed with the reaction she's seen to her story. She's been promoting the film with her now-wife Lisa Holewyne and their dog, Champ, by her side. Holewyne, also a former professional boxer, appears in the film by way of Katy O'Brian (*Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning*). After squaring off in the ring, the two developed a long-term friendship that eventually blossomed into a romantic relationship.

"Women are coming to share their story about domestic violence. There's people coming to me about sexuality," Martin says. "They're really reacting in a positive way."

For Sweeney, "It's honestly a life-changing experience in a way, of knowing that I can be a part of Christy's story that can help others."

For Martin, "This movie's bigger than Hollywood."

*Christy* opens in theaters this weekend.**

Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Movies"

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Source: Movies

Published: November 07, 2025 at 05:38PM on Source: RED MAG

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