Former boxer Christy Martin has defended Sydney Sweeney’s portrayal of her in Christy, after Ruby Rose called her a “cretin”.
The new film tells the story of the life and career of Martin, the best-known female American boxer of the 1990s who was later the victim of attempted murder at the hands of her coach-turned-husband.
Martin identifies as lesbian and has been married to a woman since 2017, and earlier this week, Orange Is The New Black actor Rose, who is a prominent figure in the LGBTQ+ community, accused Sweeney of failing to connect to this aspect of the character.
Rose said she had been attached to play Martin at an early stage, describing the original script as “incredible”, but she did not have praise for Sweeney’s portrayal.
“For her PR to talk about it flopping and saying SS did it for the ‘people’” she said. “None of ‘the people’ want to see someone who hates them, parading around pretending to be us. You’re a cretin and you ruined the film. Period. Christy deserved better.”
Now, Martin herself has come to Sweeney’s defence in a supportive Instagram message posted on Thursday (November 13).
“I’ve always been a fighter. My life reflected that in every way and now I fight for others,” she wrote. “The past few days I have seen some people attack my friend Sydney Sweeney. Syd not only worked her ass off for this film, she worked her ass off for me. For my story. For so many others suffering in silence.”
She concluded: “So I want to be clear about who Syd is. She is my friend and ally!”
The film had a rough time on its opening weekend at the US box office, making just $1.3million (£1million) from 2,011 cinemas, a per-theatre average of just $649 (£495), and missing out on the top 10.
Despite the failure, Sweeney took to Instagram to defend the movie. “If Christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step toward safety, then we will have succeeded” she wrote. “So yes I’m proud. Why? Because we don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact.”
For much of the summer, Sweeney was embroiled in controversy over her appearance in an advert for American Eagle Jeans, which was accused of promoting eugenics by social media users. The actor recently spoke out on the controversy for the first time, saying: “I’ve always believed that I’m not here to tell people what to think.”
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