Boxing champ Claressa Shields likes to point out that, just like Muhammad Ali, she now has a biopic. “The Fire Inside,” in theaters now, dramatizes her remarkable journey, from poverty in Flint, Michigan, to being a two-time Olympic boxing Gold Medalist known as “T-Rex.” Scripted by director Barry Jenkins (he made the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Moonlight”), starring Ryan Destiny, 29, as Claressa and Brian Tyree Henry, 42, as her coach and mentor, “Fire” is a gritty look at how unequal winning Olympic gold is.
If it was incredibly tough for Shields to win the gold in 2012, it was even more difficult surviving – without endorsements – in the aftermath. For director Rachel Morrison, “Fire” began, “With the fact that Claressa is such a badass force. An incredible athlete,” she said during a virtual press conference.
“And I didn’t know about her – and I follow sports. It felt like for me not to know, there was something wrong in the universe. Claressa’s story deserved to be out there.
” “Somebody reached out to me,” Shields, 29, recalled. “I hadn’t even (gone) to the second Olympics yet. They were, ‘We’re huge fans and want to do a movie about your life.
’ “I was, ‘Okay’ – and then the price goes up after I win the gold medal again. I was,” she laughed, “we got some negotiating to do. “Then I was on Google asking, ‘What are movie deals supposed to look like?’ Cause I had no idea.
I’m a boxer. Dealing with that,.
