Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney, who was recently seen in the sports biopic ‘Christy’, suffered a concussion on the set of the film. The 28-year-old actress plays real life boxer Christy Martin in the film and she's revealed the fight scenes were "all real" and she sustained a nasty injury when she was filming ring scenes with Naomi Graham, who played Muhammad Ali's boxer daughter Laila Ali, reports ‘Female First UK’.
Sweeney told ‘The Guardian’ newspaper, "Oh yeah, they (the fight scenes) were all real. Every fight that you see, we’re hitting each other. I had concussions, there were some bloody noses. I loved it! The lady who played Laila Ali is an actual professional boxer.
She’s in the air force and fights for Team USA – she hit hard and it was very, very real. She’s how I got my concussion”. The actress added, "It was such an exhilarating feeling. In between takes, I’d be like, ‘I think I won that round’”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, Sweeney previously admitted she was able to identify with Martin, and fought professionally between 1989 and 2011. She was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020, because they have been through similar struggles.
As she accepted an award at Variety’s Power of Women event in California last month, Sweeney explained, "I’m not a fighter in the ring, but I recognise something of myself in (Christy Martin). I know what it feels like to be underestimated, to have people define you before you’ve had a chance to define yourself.
I know what it feels like to have to prove that you deserve to be here, to be seen, to be taken seriously”. “But every one of us has our own fight, and Christy reminds us all that strength doesn’t look loud sometimes, and sometimes it’s just about getting back up again and again, no matter who’s watching.
Playing (Christy) taught me that surviving isn’t the end of the story. It is the beginning of reclaiming it. And to every young girl out there, I hope that you know that your power is already within you. You don’t have to wait for permission to be brave. You don’t have to shrink yourself to make others comfortable. And if you fall, you can just get right back up”, she added.