Nov. 12, 2025
A Gut Punch Aimed At Sydney Sweeney, Ruby Rose Blames Actress For Movie Flop
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RSS Feed In a mean spirited, social media post, actress and openly gay Ruby Rose points the finger directly at Sydney Sweeney for “ruining” Sweeney’s latest movie “Christy," a biopic about one of the most prominent figures in the history of boxing, Christy Martin. Martin was a closeted lesbian who survived a murder attempt by her husband, but went on to be inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Rose said Sweeney “paraded around pretending to be us” insinuating because Sweeney is a Republican and straight, she had no right to play the role of Christy, calling her a “cretin” who ruined the film. The critics and Christy Martin herself say otherwise.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is Wednesday, November the twelfth, and let me ask you something. Can a straight actor play a gay character? Also? Can a Republican be supportive of the LGBTQ plus community? Well? Why are we asking those questions? Because Ruby Rose is asking those questions and she's directing it fiercely at Sidney Sweeney. And with that, everybody, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This is a some of the questions, I guess robes are just asked. Some of those debates have been going on, but they've taken on a new meaning, a new fierceness, because it involves somebody who is one of the most popular and polarizing people on the planet right now, at least in Hollywood, and that's Sidney Sweeny.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: That's Sidney Sweeney. And maybe you could even add Ruby Rose to that as well on the other end of the spectrum. But look, we've been talking about this this morning because of but Ruby Rose put up on Instagram talking about the movie Christy Sidney Sweeney. It plays the lead role of Christy Martin, and that movie did not do well over the weekend, and Ruby Rose took direct aim at Sidney Sweeney and you actually were really hesitant to even do this story.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: Because it didn't come off fun initially as a as a critique of the work. It seemed very personal and she used and she doubled down and followed up, and I mean throwing names at her, calling her names. That part of it where you I hate to see people like that go after each other. And Sidney Sweeney is not going after her, I should say, but this looked like and it sounded like sour apples and tabloid clickbait that everybody in all the headlines you see Sidney Sweeney's name. She's been called blank by this other acts. I just didn't like that. But within it there is a more relevant conversation has been going on in the country for years.
00:02:01
Speaker 2: That's right, and it is a question a lot of folks ask. Look, you know, the whole concept of being an actor means you take on roles that are unlike yourself. They're trained to do this. This is part of what acting is, being something doing something that you wouldn't do as you but you're actually portraying another person. However, this goes, and this has been a debate for years now. Can a non blind actor play a blind role. How about someone who doesn't have autism? How about someone who is challenged in a different way? Can is it acceptable? Is it offensive to try and take on the role of someone who has a different life experience than you that you couldn't possibly understand in the skin that you're wearing, you could.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: Play a role. I mean, those debates have been going on. This is I guess it was the heart of some of Ruby Rose's criticism of this movie. And again, Christy Martin maybe not a household name, but she was a pioneer when it comes to women's boxing. So Sidney Sweeney did all the work. She put on thirty plus pounds to play this role. And some folks say it's Oscar bait whatever, but it didn't do good at the box office. It actually did historically bad at the box office, making one point three or so million on two thousand plus screens. The folks who keep up with this will tell you that is one of the worst openings for a movie that was on that many screens. Okay, fine, So Ruby Rose, an actress and who has been openly out lesbian for years and years, she took issue with her having the role and She's now wrote saying that the reason that the movie didn't do well is directly directly attributable, in her opinion, to her sexuality and her political leanings.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: Right, and so, in fact, let's go ahead and read what Ruby Rose wrote that is causing so much of a stir. The original Christy Martin's script was incredible, life changing. I was attached to play Cherry. Everyone had experience with the core material. Most of us were actually gay. It's part of why I stayed in acting. Losing roles happens all the time. For her pr to talk about it, flopping and saying SS did it for the people. None of the people want to see someone who hates them parading around pretending to be us. You're a Cretan and you ruined the film period. Christy deserved better.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Now some of that within there. As a woman who has been very outspoken in terms of LGBTQ plus rights in the community, I could see why she might be upset and offended, especially as an actress who knows more about that industry and how she's viewed in roles and what she's experienced behind the scenes. That part, I can get the Cretan part, and calling her names, and then she doubled down and came back and called her a psychopath. Those things, I guess take away from the message and the messenge juror when it seems so personal and mean.
00:05:07
Speaker 2: It absolutely was mean and unnecessary, I think is a huge part of it. And perhaps I would even say most people completely disagree with what Ruby Rose wrote there in terms of Sidney Sweeney ruining the movie. In fact, Christy Martin herself has been extremely supportive. We can get into that. And even among the reviewers who were kind of met on the film, and it wasn't poorly reviewed it was it was, It had decent reviews. But I would say I have not read to date any actual critic saying anything about Sidney Sweeney's performance other than it was brilliant.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: That's all fine. I completely respect Ruby Rose's opinion of how Sidney Sweeney performed in this movie if she gave it to me in some kind of context that I know she knows better than I do. She is an actress, She's been in movie, she's been in show, so she can give me an assessment of Sidney Sweeney and her performance in there better than I can do myself. But she didn't. She just said she ruined it. She's terrible, she's a Cretan and it just seemed very personal. But she can have her opinion that part all respect if she didn't like it, and also not respect that a straight woman is playing this LGBTQ plus icon.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: By the way, I had to look up what the word cretan meant. I didn't even know a lot of people did apparently, and apparently it is a slur.
00:06:30
Speaker 1: Stop there.
00:06:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's considered able list it's a slur, and when you look it up, it's not something that you're supposed to say out loud or write down anywhere in terms of modern decorum. That is considered a curse word of bad word. And in one outlet they actually even and this is what got me thinking, put stars like, if you had someone drop the F bomb public putting it in a publication, they would have to somehow, you know, not actually spill out the word. They were doing that with that word, which was interesting. So then yes, Rose followed up saying, first, I regret writing that and should have just said psychopaths. So then she, just as you mentioned, doubled down on her insults towards Sidney Sweeney, So yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: That part has to be mentioned. I don't think you've seen anything where Sidney Sweeney directly responded to Ruby Rose, but she responded to the fact that the movie didn't do well and talked about we don't just do it for money. We don't just do it for numbers. Sometimes we do it for impact. That was the part that set off Ruby Rose exact idea. Do you have Sidney s I have her Instagram.
00:07:28
Speaker 2: Yeah it was, but I thought it was it was with heart. So this is what Sweeney or Sidney Sweeney put up on Instagram regarding the poor showing of Christy. I am so deeply proud of this movie, Proud of the film David made, proud of the story we told, Proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin. This experience has been one of the greatest honors of my life. This film stands for survival, courage, and hope. Through our campaigns, we've helped raise awareness for so many affected by domestic violence. We all signed on to this film with belief that Christie's story could save lives. Thank you to everyone who saw, felt, and believed and will believe in this story for years to come. If Christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step towards safety, then we will have succeeded. So yes, I'm proud. Why because we don't always just make art for numbers. We make it for impact, and Christy has been the most impactful project of my life. Thank you, Christy, I love you.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: I can believe that and take her at a word. For the most part of it, I think a lot of it looks very pr polished. You can say you don't do it for numbers all day long, but the company that put fifteen million dollars into this film is not happy that. In me one point three they didn't want to make money.
00:08:43
Speaker 2: And they put it out in two thousand theaters, which is a huge wide release.
00:08:46
Speaker 1: Yes, so some of that will read as pr dusting, and that's fine to me. But I have to take her at her word and believe that that, yes, this is getting a story out. And look, Sidney Sweeney has been the middle of controversy, but what sells controversy. See now this movie is going to get a second or third look and some attention. Thank you, Ruby Rose.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: Keep talking shit, absolutely because I hadn't even heard of this movie, and part of the reason why it didn't do so well, according to a lot of folks who have written articles on this, is that there just was no promotion of it. There was one Billboard one shot, and I hadn't even heard of this movie until Ruby Rose brought it up. So yes to that, exactly, I get that. But listen to the You know, we did Critics Consensus every time we did our Horror Halloween deep cuts, our countdown to Halloween. We had a bunch of movie reviews on all of the horror movies we loved, and we were going to Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes to talk about what critics said of the movie. I thought this was really interesting, the one that they wrote about Christy. While Christy falters in tonal cohesion and emotional impact, it remains a compelling showcase for Sidney Sweeney's transformative performance, grounding a mythic genre and raw personal storytelling. It only got sixty five percent among the critics, but look, this is a crazy number. I don't think I've seen this before. Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes ninety seven percent. The people loved it who saw it just not that many.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: Do you know how many were there?
00:10:18
Speaker 2: They were about fifty, okay, and they were all glowing.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: Hey that's fine, Yes, that's fine.
00:10:24
Speaker 2: Even Variety Magazine said, Sydney Sweeney is already well on her way to becoming a movie star. But this may go down as the film in which she fully expresses the soul of a movie star, which is this. She completely becomes the character and in doing so becomes us.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: And again, people, this is that you have seen. I don't know why Charlie's their own comes to mind.
00:10:46
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: When the academy loves when you physically transform for a role.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: Especially a beautiful woman known for her looks, this is.
00:10:54
Speaker 1: Okay, so fine. You can call it oscar bait, you can call it what it want, but you can. I am not no, no matter what. I can imagine what it feels like for a woman her size to have to put on thirty five frickin' pounds.
00:11:09
Speaker 2: She talked about it. She because she said, I didn't fit into any of my clothes. I'm usually a size twenty three in jeans like she is thin, but I was wearing a size twenty seven.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: She wrote.
00:11:20
Speaker 2: My boobs got bigger. My butt got huge. It was crazy. I was like, oh my god, but it was amazing. I was so strong, like crazy strong. But yeah, she said she had to eat weight train, kickbox weight train. Again. This is all while acting, too, so this was a physical transformation.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: We shouldn't have read that part. Everything was going so good.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: So she said that her boobs got big. I thought they were already. Oh they got bigger.
00:11:45
Speaker 1: Sorry, it was bigger. And my waist went up to a twenty seven. That's thin.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: I've been a twenty seven for a lot of my life.
00:11:53
Speaker 1: We get it. That's fine. It just sounded kind of funny. I'm not knocking her for that, but it sounded funny. But yeah, she had to go through that, And yes, you do just or of credit on top of doing the acting. And look, I am now curious about this movie because of all this controversy. But it does bring up all those questions road as we talk about can a straight person play a gay actor? Ken is that okay? I think the industry is kind of getting away from that, not making as big of a deal of it, or keeping it a little quiet because people do get upset about that. I don't know what the right thing is. But it's an issue. You can't reverse it. You can't say then a gay actor shouldn't play us straight.
00:12:30
Speaker 2: This is about marginalized community.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: Can do it?
00:12:32
Speaker 2: Yes, this is about marginalized communities, and look I do. It does seem that the trend has been for directors casting directors to look for actors who actually live with whatever that character might be experiencing. If it's you know, it's a situation with a physical attribute or an emotional attribute. They are trying to give people who are actors those roles, those opportunities. I don't know what the right answer is. You know, I am the last person who should probably weigh in on whether that's correct or not. I do think that this isn't going away.
00:13:13
Speaker 1: Obviously a straight actor can do a fine, damn good job is playing a gay character, and in fact, they could maybe out act a gay actor in that saying role. That's a matter of a skill set. Now I'm not taking away. Yes, this gay actor is informed in life in a way that the straight actor never will be. But can we just say that automatically you're straight, so you can't play this character.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: I would tend to say that I think we should be a little more open minded about these types of things. And when we come back, we're going to talk about what Christy Martin herself, the woman who this biopick was about, had to say about Sidney Sweeney playing her role, what she thought of her performance, Because shouldn't that be more important than what Ruby Rose thinks. Continuing our conversation about this brawl that Ruby Rose has brought out of the ring and into the spotlight, talking about Sidney Sweeney, Sydney Sweeney's portrayal of boxing legend Christy Martin, who is lesbian, who was a survivor of domestic violence, and Ruby Rose took issue with Sidney Sweeney playing that role, and not just took issue with, but blamed her and her portrayal for the reason why Christy did not do well at the box office and did horribly actually like one of the worst openings ever for a movie on two thousand plus screens.
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Oh but it's also a movie that didn't get a whole lot of promotion. It's about domestic violence, it's about abuse, and about a woman who's not a household name. Those things could have attributed to exactly.
00:15:03
Speaker 2: In fact, a lot of folks said if they just had changed the name of the movie, perhaps because people don't know Christy Martin's name, so to name a movie Christy doesn't really draw people in.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: It should have been called Sidney Sweeney plays a Boxer fled to the theater, right, all right?
00:15:20
Speaker 2: So yes, we know that Ruby Rose had some scathing things to say about and hurled at Sidney Sweeney. But Christy Martin, who this film is all about, and had a huge role in actually being a part of the film. They promoted the film together and she applauded publicly Sidney Sweeney's performance, and this is what she had to say. I am actually very shy, very reserved, and want to help everyone I possibly can. In the boxing world, I wanted to knock everybody out. So I have those two parts of my personality. And I think that's why Sidney Sweeney is doing such an awesome job, because she got to be this totally different person than none of you expected. So how is that to add to the debate of whether or not you can play a role that might be completely opposite of who you are.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: I think Christy Bardon is. I mean, she has every incentive to be very complimentary. I'm sure, she was a part of the process and was very excited to have a star as big and beautiful as Sidney Sweeney playing her, so that you expect a certain amount of that. But it would have been very negative to hear Christy Martin say I can't believe they chose this woman.
00:16:28
Speaker 2: And actually Martin addressed the fact that Sidney Sweeney is as gorgeous as she is. She said, she said that Sidney Sweeney. She said, I wasn't the beautiful, sexy Sidney. She was the tough, rugged Christy in this movie. And I think that's awesome. So she was applauding the fact that Sidney Sweeney basically took off her or I guess was able to transform beyond being the beautiful bombshell that she is and certainly has become to be known.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: As most women can transform and beyond the beautiful bombshelves that they are. It's not hard.
00:17:03
Speaker 2: Most people don't wake up like that.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: I'm not taking away from Sidney SWAITI I'm just I'm just saying.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Yes, And look, Christy Martin, this I actually was looking into her. I'd never heard of her to your point before this movie, but just to see what she accomplished in the fact that even perhaps this controversy beyond the movie is bringing her into the spotlight. She was a daughter of a coal miner. She went on to become the first woman signed to a promotional contract by big boxing promoter. We know his named Don King, and we know, oh wow that you just see him when you hear his name Don King, and the first female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I had no idea, but she suffered from incredible bouts of domestic violence, and so look, I know that the focus might have been perhaps a little bit on the fact that she is a out and she's a lesbian, but certainly this is also about surviving domestic violence. You could argue, do you have to know what that's like? Should should you be a survivor of some kind to be able to portray somebody who's gone through something like that. I just don't know where it ends.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: How do you feel about white actors playing in blackface?
00:18:12
Speaker 2: That's really funny, obviously, Obviously I don't even really need to respond to that. That's a huge no, obviously, and Tropic Thunder is still you. But no, honestly, you have brought that up multiple times. What funny, it's funny? Why is that funny?
00:18:30
Speaker 1: Though, let me tell you why it's funny, because you don't have a white actor playing a black character. The character in Tropic Thunder was a white guy who put himself in blackface so he could make a movie. So it's not like he got in there to play. They're actually playing on the fact of what we're talking about here. They make a joke about it. In this movie. He plays an actor that they give the role to because it's for a black person, but they get it to a white person who changed his face black. That is actually I didn't put that together.
00:19:05
Speaker 2: I get what you're saying, but they're making a parody of the controversy.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: But if you have a movie, if you have I don't know, Black Panther and they pick a Timothy Shallom to do part four and they put him in blackface, that's offensive because he's playing a character who is black. Robert was totally different. It wasn't offensive in the least bit.
00:19:28
Speaker 2: But still hearing Robert Downey Jr. Not just have the black face, but then speak in a very over the top stereotypical black vernacular that was hard for me. I was watching you like, is this okay that I'm listening to this and laughing at him?
00:19:47
Speaker 1: Totally offensive and awful and uncomfortable. What did I tell you? One of my favorite movies as a kid. It was a movie called soul Man like white guy who couldn't pay for Harvard so he did blackface so he could get a minority skyt Okay. That movie was out. All these things happened. Robert Downey Junior get a god damn Oscar nomination for this movie, and Oscar for a white guy who did such a good job of playing a black man. That part was offensive. The Oscar part was offensive because all of you all looked, Oh, yeah, he is nailing being a black guy. That's not us. That's offensive. I can get offended. I could be mad, I can yell, and I can scream because of where I sit. That's why I'm trying to give Ruby Rose just a little grace and how she might be fired up. She might have reacted out of emotion. She might come back and say that was too much. I don't know, but genuinely upset.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: I can see, yeah, exactly, and I look at the end of the days It brings up a lot of different conversations. And as long as they remain conversations and they're thoughtful and they're productive, and people perhaps leave space in their mind for a for a perspective other than their own, that's wonderful. It's just when you use language like she used, that's when things get offensive from her end and actually don't move the needle, but just end up getting people riled up, and then just playing to the political right versus left, you know, and just drawing stereotypes. It's what you would think someone who maybe has experienced some of that hate and some of those feelings of being lesbian and being open and all of those, you know, certain issues that come up with that, you'd think she'd be more sensitive to not generalizing other people and.
00:21:36
Speaker 1: The other We didn't talk about it as much, but the whole part of her came out. She was a Republican after the genes, the whole genes ad and she brought that up as well. Can she's a Republican? What was the line she used about playing one of us, Yes, suggestion that you're hating what.
00:21:53
Speaker 2: She said, None of the people want to see someone who hates them parading around pretending to be us. So anyway, it's something to consider, something to talk about. Just hopefully we can do that using language other than what Ruby Rose used. So thank you for listening to us. We appreciate you as always. I'm Amy Robock alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is Wednesday, November the twelfth, and let me ask you something. Can a straight actor play a gay character? Also? Can a Republican be supportive of the LGBTQ plus community? Well? Why are we asking those questions? Because Ruby Rose is asking those questions and she's directing it fiercely at Sidney Sweeney. And with that, everybody, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This is a some of the questions, I guess robes are just asked. Some of those debates have been going on, but they've taken on a new meaning, a new fierceness, because it involves somebody who is one of the most popular and polarizing people on the planet right now, at least in Hollywood, and that's Sidney Sweeny.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: That's Sidney Sweeney. And maybe you could even add Ruby Rose to that as well on the other end of the spectrum. But look, we've been talking about this this morning because of but Ruby Rose put up on Instagram talking about the movie Christy Sidney Sweeney. It plays the lead role of Christy Martin, and that movie did not do well over the weekend, and Ruby Rose took direct aim at Sidney Sweeney and you actually were really hesitant to even do this story.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: Because it didn't come off fun initially as a as a critique of the work. It seemed very personal and she used and she doubled down and followed up, and I mean throwing names at her, calling her names. That part of it where you I hate to see people like that go after each other. And Sidney Sweeney is not going after her, I should say, but this looked like and it sounded like sour apples and tabloid clickbait that everybody in all the headlines you see Sidney Sweeney's name. She's been called blank by this other acts. I just didn't like that. But within it there is a more relevant conversation has been going on in the country for years.
00:02:01
Speaker 2: That's right, and it is a question a lot of folks ask. Look, you know, the whole concept of being an actor means you take on roles that are unlike yourself. They're trained to do this. This is part of what acting is, being something doing something that you wouldn't do as you but you're actually portraying another person. However, this goes, and this has been a debate for years now. Can a non blind actor play a blind role. How about someone who doesn't have autism? How about someone who is challenged in a different way? Can is it acceptable? Is it offensive to try and take on the role of someone who has a different life experience than you that you couldn't possibly understand in the skin that you're wearing, you could.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: Play a role. I mean, those debates have been going on. This is I guess it was the heart of some of Ruby Rose's criticism of this movie. And again, Christy Martin maybe not a household name, but she was a pioneer when it comes to women's boxing. So Sidney Sweeney did all the work. She put on thirty plus pounds to play this role. And some folks say it's Oscar bait whatever, but it didn't do good at the box office. It actually did historically bad at the box office, making one point three or so million on two thousand plus screens. The folks who keep up with this will tell you that is one of the worst openings for a movie that was on that many screens. Okay, fine, So Ruby Rose, an actress and who has been openly out lesbian for years and years, she took issue with her having the role and She's now wrote saying that the reason that the movie didn't do well is directly directly attributable, in her opinion, to her sexuality and her political leanings.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: Right, and so, in fact, let's go ahead and read what Ruby Rose wrote that is causing so much of a stir. The original Christy Martin's script was incredible, life changing. I was attached to play Cherry. Everyone had experience with the core material. Most of us were actually gay. It's part of why I stayed in acting. Losing roles happens all the time. For her pr to talk about it, flopping and saying SS did it for the people. None of the people want to see someone who hates them parading around pretending to be us. You're a Cretan and you ruined the film period. Christy deserved better.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Now some of that within there. As a woman who has been very outspoken in terms of LGBTQ plus rights in the community, I could see why she might be upset and offended, especially as an actress who knows more about that industry and how she's viewed in roles and what she's experienced behind the scenes. That part, I can get the Cretan part, and calling her names, and then she doubled down and came back and called her a psychopath. Those things, I guess take away from the message and the messenge juror when it seems so personal and mean.
00:05:07
Speaker 2: It absolutely was mean and unnecessary, I think is a huge part of it. And perhaps I would even say most people completely disagree with what Ruby Rose wrote there in terms of Sidney Sweeney ruining the movie. In fact, Christy Martin herself has been extremely supportive. We can get into that. And even among the reviewers who were kind of met on the film, and it wasn't poorly reviewed it was it was, It had decent reviews. But I would say I have not read to date any actual critic saying anything about Sidney Sweeney's performance other than it was brilliant.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: That's all fine. I completely respect Ruby Rose's opinion of how Sidney Sweeney performed in this movie if she gave it to me in some kind of context that I know she knows better than I do. She is an actress, She's been in movie, she's been in show, so she can give me an assessment of Sidney Sweeney and her performance in there better than I can do myself. But she didn't. She just said she ruined it. She's terrible, she's a Cretan and it just seemed very personal. But she can have her opinion that part all respect if she didn't like it, and also not respect that a straight woman is playing this LGBTQ plus icon.
00:06:22
Speaker 2: By the way, I had to look up what the word cretan meant. I didn't even know a lot of people did apparently, and apparently it is a slur.
00:06:30
Speaker 1: Stop there.
00:06:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's considered able list it's a slur, and when you look it up, it's not something that you're supposed to say out loud or write down anywhere in terms of modern decorum. That is considered a curse word of bad word. And in one outlet they actually even and this is what got me thinking, put stars like, if you had someone drop the F bomb public putting it in a publication, they would have to somehow, you know, not actually spill out the word. They were doing that with that word, which was interesting. So then yes, Rose followed up saying, first, I regret writing that and should have just said psychopaths. So then she, just as you mentioned, doubled down on her insults towards Sidney Sweeney, So yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: That part has to be mentioned. I don't think you've seen anything where Sidney Sweeney directly responded to Ruby Rose, but she responded to the fact that the movie didn't do well and talked about we don't just do it for money. We don't just do it for numbers. Sometimes we do it for impact. That was the part that set off Ruby Rose exact idea. Do you have Sidney s I have her Instagram.
00:07:28
Speaker 2: Yeah it was, but I thought it was it was with heart. So this is what Sweeney or Sidney Sweeney put up on Instagram regarding the poor showing of Christy. I am so deeply proud of this movie, Proud of the film David made, proud of the story we told, Proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin. This experience has been one of the greatest honors of my life. This film stands for survival, courage, and hope. Through our campaigns, we've helped raise awareness for so many affected by domestic violence. We all signed on to this film with belief that Christie's story could save lives. Thank you to everyone who saw, felt, and believed and will believe in this story for years to come. If Christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step towards safety, then we will have succeeded. So yes, I'm proud. Why because we don't always just make art for numbers. We make it for impact, and Christy has been the most impactful project of my life. Thank you, Christy, I love you.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: I can believe that and take her at a word. For the most part of it, I think a lot of it looks very pr polished. You can say you don't do it for numbers all day long, but the company that put fifteen million dollars into this film is not happy that. In me one point three they didn't want to make money.
00:08:43
Speaker 2: And they put it out in two thousand theaters, which is a huge wide release.
00:08:46
Speaker 1: Yes, so some of that will read as pr dusting, and that's fine to me. But I have to take her at her word and believe that that, yes, this is getting a story out. And look, Sidney Sweeney has been the middle of controversy, but what sells controversy. See now this movie is going to get a second or third look and some attention. Thank you, Ruby Rose.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: Keep talking shit, absolutely because I hadn't even heard of this movie, and part of the reason why it didn't do so well, according to a lot of folks who have written articles on this, is that there just was no promotion of it. There was one Billboard one shot, and I hadn't even heard of this movie until Ruby Rose brought it up. So yes to that, exactly, I get that. But listen to the You know, we did Critics Consensus every time we did our Horror Halloween deep cuts, our countdown to Halloween. We had a bunch of movie reviews on all of the horror movies we loved, and we were going to Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes to talk about what critics said of the movie. I thought this was really interesting, the one that they wrote about Christy. While Christy falters in tonal cohesion and emotional impact, it remains a compelling showcase for Sidney Sweeney's transformative performance, grounding a mythic genre and raw personal storytelling. It only got sixty five percent among the critics, but look, this is a crazy number. I don't think I've seen this before. Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes ninety seven percent. The people loved it who saw it just not that many.
00:10:17
Speaker 1: Do you know how many were there?
00:10:18
Speaker 2: They were about fifty, okay, and they were all glowing.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: Hey that's fine, Yes, that's fine.
00:10:24
Speaker 2: Even Variety Magazine said, Sydney Sweeney is already well on her way to becoming a movie star. But this may go down as the film in which she fully expresses the soul of a movie star, which is this. She completely becomes the character and in doing so becomes us.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: And again, people, this is that you have seen. I don't know why Charlie's their own comes to mind.
00:10:46
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: When the academy loves when you physically transform for a role.
00:10:51
Speaker 2: Especially a beautiful woman known for her looks, this is.
00:10:54
Speaker 1: Okay, so fine. You can call it oscar bait, you can call it what it want, but you can. I am not no, no matter what. I can imagine what it feels like for a woman her size to have to put on thirty five frickin' pounds.
00:11:09
Speaker 2: She talked about it. She because she said, I didn't fit into any of my clothes. I'm usually a size twenty three in jeans like she is thin, but I was wearing a size twenty seven.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: She wrote.
00:11:20
Speaker 2: My boobs got bigger. My butt got huge. It was crazy. I was like, oh my god, but it was amazing. I was so strong, like crazy strong. But yeah, she said she had to eat weight train, kickbox weight train. Again. This is all while acting, too, so this was a physical transformation.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: We shouldn't have read that part. Everything was going so good.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: So she said that her boobs got big. I thought they were already. Oh they got bigger.
00:11:45
Speaker 1: Sorry, it was bigger. And my waist went up to a twenty seven. That's thin.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: I've been a twenty seven for a lot of my life.
00:11:53
Speaker 1: We get it. That's fine. It just sounded kind of funny. I'm not knocking her for that, but it sounded funny. But yeah, she had to go through that, And yes, you do just or of credit on top of doing the acting. And look, I am now curious about this movie because of all this controversy. But it does bring up all those questions road as we talk about can a straight person play a gay actor? Ken is that okay? I think the industry is kind of getting away from that, not making as big of a deal of it, or keeping it a little quiet because people do get upset about that. I don't know what the right thing is. But it's an issue. You can't reverse it. You can't say then a gay actor shouldn't play us straight.
00:12:30
Speaker 2: This is about marginalized community.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: Can do it?
00:12:32
Speaker 2: Yes, this is about marginalized communities, and look I do. It does seem that the trend has been for directors casting directors to look for actors who actually live with whatever that character might be experiencing. If it's you know, it's a situation with a physical attribute or an emotional attribute. They are trying to give people who are actors those roles, those opportunities. I don't know what the right answer is. You know, I am the last person who should probably weigh in on whether that's correct or not. I do think that this isn't going away.
00:13:13
Speaker 1: Obviously a straight actor can do a fine, damn good job is playing a gay character, and in fact, they could maybe out act a gay actor in that saying role. That's a matter of a skill set. Now I'm not taking away. Yes, this gay actor is informed in life in a way that the straight actor never will be. But can we just say that automatically you're straight, so you can't play this character.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: I would tend to say that I think we should be a little more open minded about these types of things. And when we come back, we're going to talk about what Christy Martin herself, the woman who this biopick was about, had to say about Sidney Sweeney playing her role, what she thought of her performance, Because shouldn't that be more important than what Ruby Rose thinks. Continuing our conversation about this brawl that Ruby Rose has brought out of the ring and into the spotlight, talking about Sidney Sweeney, Sydney Sweeney's portrayal of boxing legend Christy Martin, who is lesbian, who was a survivor of domestic violence, and Ruby Rose took issue with Sidney Sweeney playing that role, and not just took issue with, but blamed her and her portrayal for the reason why Christy did not do well at the box office and did horribly actually like one of the worst openings ever for a movie on two thousand plus screens.
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Oh but it's also a movie that didn't get a whole lot of promotion. It's about domestic violence, it's about abuse, and about a woman who's not a household name. Those things could have attributed to exactly.
00:15:03
Speaker 2: In fact, a lot of folks said if they just had changed the name of the movie, perhaps because people don't know Christy Martin's name, so to name a movie Christy doesn't really draw people in.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: It should have been called Sidney Sweeney plays a Boxer fled to the theater, right, all right?
00:15:20
Speaker 2: So yes, we know that Ruby Rose had some scathing things to say about and hurled at Sidney Sweeney. But Christy Martin, who this film is all about, and had a huge role in actually being a part of the film. They promoted the film together and she applauded publicly Sidney Sweeney's performance, and this is what she had to say. I am actually very shy, very reserved, and want to help everyone I possibly can. In the boxing world, I wanted to knock everybody out. So I have those two parts of my personality. And I think that's why Sidney Sweeney is doing such an awesome job, because she got to be this totally different person than none of you expected. So how is that to add to the debate of whether or not you can play a role that might be completely opposite of who you are.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: I think Christy Bardon is. I mean, she has every incentive to be very complimentary. I'm sure, she was a part of the process and was very excited to have a star as big and beautiful as Sidney Sweeney playing her, so that you expect a certain amount of that. But it would have been very negative to hear Christy Martin say I can't believe they chose this woman.
00:16:28
Speaker 2: And actually Martin addressed the fact that Sidney Sweeney is as gorgeous as she is. She said, she said that Sidney Sweeney. She said, I wasn't the beautiful, sexy Sidney. She was the tough, rugged Christy in this movie. And I think that's awesome. So she was applauding the fact that Sidney Sweeney basically took off her or I guess was able to transform beyond being the beautiful bombshell that she is and certainly has become to be known.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: As most women can transform and beyond the beautiful bombshelves that they are. It's not hard.
00:17:03
Speaker 2: Most people don't wake up like that.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: I'm not taking away from Sidney SWAITI I'm just I'm just saying.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Yes, And look, Christy Martin, this I actually was looking into her. I'd never heard of her to your point before this movie, but just to see what she accomplished in the fact that even perhaps this controversy beyond the movie is bringing her into the spotlight. She was a daughter of a coal miner. She went on to become the first woman signed to a promotional contract by big boxing promoter. We know his named Don King, and we know, oh wow that you just see him when you hear his name Don King, and the first female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I had no idea, but she suffered from incredible bouts of domestic violence, and so look, I know that the focus might have been perhaps a little bit on the fact that she is a out and she's a lesbian, but certainly this is also about surviving domestic violence. You could argue, do you have to know what that's like? Should should you be a survivor of some kind to be able to portray somebody who's gone through something like that. I just don't know where it ends.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: How do you feel about white actors playing in blackface?
00:18:12
Speaker 2: That's really funny, obviously, Obviously I don't even really need to respond to that. That's a huge no, obviously, and Tropic Thunder is still you. But no, honestly, you have brought that up multiple times. What funny, it's funny? Why is that funny?
00:18:30
Speaker 1: Though, let me tell you why it's funny, because you don't have a white actor playing a black character. The character in Tropic Thunder was a white guy who put himself in blackface so he could make a movie. So it's not like he got in there to play. They're actually playing on the fact of what we're talking about here. They make a joke about it. In this movie. He plays an actor that they give the role to because it's for a black person, but they get it to a white person who changed his face black. That is actually I didn't put that together.
00:19:05
Speaker 2: I get what you're saying, but they're making a parody of the controversy.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: But if you have a movie, if you have I don't know, Black Panther and they pick a Timothy Shallom to do part four and they put him in blackface, that's offensive because he's playing a character who is black. Robert was totally different. It wasn't offensive in the least bit.
00:19:28
Speaker 2: But still hearing Robert Downey Jr. Not just have the black face, but then speak in a very over the top stereotypical black vernacular that was hard for me. I was watching you like, is this okay that I'm listening to this and laughing at him?
00:19:47
Speaker 1: Totally offensive and awful and uncomfortable. What did I tell you? One of my favorite movies as a kid. It was a movie called soul Man like white guy who couldn't pay for Harvard so he did blackface so he could get a minority skyt Okay. That movie was out. All these things happened. Robert Downey Junior get a god damn Oscar nomination for this movie, and Oscar for a white guy who did such a good job of playing a black man. That part was offensive. The Oscar part was offensive because all of you all looked, Oh, yeah, he is nailing being a black guy. That's not us. That's offensive. I can get offended. I could be mad, I can yell, and I can scream because of where I sit. That's why I'm trying to give Ruby Rose just a little grace and how she might be fired up. She might have reacted out of emotion. She might come back and say that was too much. I don't know, but genuinely upset.
00:20:41
Speaker 2: I can see, yeah, exactly, and I look at the end of the days It brings up a lot of different conversations. And as long as they remain conversations and they're thoughtful and they're productive, and people perhaps leave space in their mind for a for a perspective other than their own, that's wonderful. It's just when you use language like she used, that's when things get offensive from her end and actually don't move the needle, but just end up getting people riled up, and then just playing to the political right versus left, you know, and just drawing stereotypes. It's what you would think someone who maybe has experienced some of that hate and some of those feelings of being lesbian and being open and all of those, you know, certain issues that come up with that, you'd think she'd be more sensitive to not generalizing other people and.
00:21:36
Speaker 1: The other We didn't talk about it as much, but the whole part of her came out. She was a Republican after the genes, the whole genes ad and she brought that up as well. Can she's a Republican? What was the line she used about playing one of us, Yes, suggestion that you're hating what.
00:21:53
Speaker 2: She said, None of the people want to see someone who hates them parading around pretending to be us. So anyway, it's something to consider, something to talk about. Just hopefully we can do that using language other than what Ruby Rose used. So thank you for listening to us. We appreciate you as always. I'm Amy Robock alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon