Sydney Sweeney appears to have left the streets of “Euphoria” for the boxing ring in the first trailer for Christy Martin’s biopic, Christy. The footage, released Thursday, finds the 27-year-old actress physically transformed into the former pro fighter and includes gritty in-ring action, a beat set to Stevie Nicks’ "Edge of Seventeen" and moments that frame Martin’s rise and private struggles.
The trailer opens on Sweeney’s portrayal of Martin embracing the sport as a discovery and a calling. "I think I found my thing. I bet most people go their entire lives and don’t know what their thing is," her character says on the phone as she commits to a boxing career. The montage culminates in a sequence in which Sweeney’s Martin is struck squarely in the face during a match, underscoring the film’s focus on the physical toll of the sport and the persona Martin projected in the ring.
Directed by David Michôd, Christy chronicles Martin’s ascent from small-town West Virginia to international prominence under the guidance of her trainer-turned-manager and eventual husband, Jim, played by Ben Foster. The ensemble includes Ethan Embry and Merritt Weaver as Martin’s conservative parents, John and Joyce. The film’s official logline describes Martin’s story as one of "grit, raw determination, and an unshakable desire to win," while also noting the personal battles she faces outside the ring over family, identity and a relationship that turns violent.
Sweeney’s physical preparation for the role has been widely reported. She trained for more than three months with intensive boxing and weightlifting sessions and said she gained roughly 30 to 35 pounds to inhabit Martin’s physique. Sweeney told Vanity Fair that she refused to use a stunt double for the fight sequences and that the actors actually landed blows on one another in order to preserve realism. "Every single fight you see, we are actually punching each other. We are going full force," she said.
The film premiered last week at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation and left Sweeney in tears. At the premiere she addressed Martin directly, calling her "absolutely incredible" and saying it was an honor to portray her. New York Post film critic Johnny Oleksinski awarded the picture three out of four stars and described Sweeney’s performance as "a total knockout."
Christy Martin’s real-life boxing career began in 1989. She rose to mainstream prominence after a March 1996 victory over Deirdre Gogarty at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, becoming the first female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Her career helped raise the profile of women’s boxing during the 1990s, and the new film aims to chart both those professional milestones and the personal trials that followed.
In 2010, Martin was the victim of a violent attack at her home in Apopka, Florida, in which her husband at the time stabbed and shot her in the chest; she survived the incident and the man — identified in court filings as James — was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Martin later publicly came out as gay and married Lisa Holewyne in 2017. The trailer alludes to Martin confronting family expectations and negotiating identity and relationships as parallel struggles to her boxing career.
Christy is scheduled for a theatrical release on Nov. 7. The film positions itself as both a sports drama and a character study of a fighter who broke barriers in a male-dominated sport while coping with life-altering personal trauma. The trailer and festival reception suggest the filmmakers and lead actress sought to balance the spectacle of boxing with the quieter, more complicated aspects of Martin’s life outside the ring.