At first blush, Rachel Morrison landed the perfect project for her directorial debut. The cinematographer known for her work with Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station” and “Black Panther”) and Dee Rees—she became the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography for her work on Rees’ “Mudbound”—landed a script written by “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins about the real-life inspirational story of gold medal winning boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields.
But since the film’s 2019 announcement, it’s hit several snags: a global pandemic suspending production, her lead Ice Cube suddenly dropping out, and an actors and writers strike that further pushed back the film’s release until its premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2024.
Morrison’s “The Fire Inside” couldn’t be extinguished. The film upends the conventions of the sports movie by not building toward an Olympic gold medal but toward what life looks like after you accomplish your dream. Claressa (Ryan Destiny) hails from the disadvantaged surroundings of Flint, Michigan. Her mother is emotionally abusive, and her family is impoverished. But Claressa loves boxing. And despite the qualms of local boxing coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) that girls shouldn’t participate in the violent sport, her dedication ultimately convinces Jason to take her on. The sensitive Jason and the undaunted Claressa become a near-unbeatable team, climbing their way to the pinnacle of the sport only to discover that there’s plenty of road ahead after the peak.
“The Fire Inside” combines Morrison’s knack for poignant visual storytelling with Jenkins’ surprising script to tell a story that doesn’t rely on simple cliches or wallow in poverty porn. Because there are no obvious villains in this tender film. Instead, they’re flawed people navigating the difficult realities of urban divestment, systemic racism, and misogynoir. While this film grapples with real-world issues, it remains inspirational and heartwarming. It’s the kind of highly rewatchable and uplifting film that feels like a classic in a genre defined by its classical structure.
Morrison spoke with RogerEbert.com in person at SCAD Savannah Film Festival about the resiliency of Claressa’s story, working with Brian Tyree Henry and overcoming myriad production setbacks to bring this stirring dream to theaters.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Have you always wanted to move toward directing, or did this opportunity come as a surprise?
RACHEL MORRISON: I love shooting. I still love shooting. I think the idea started to percolate when people like [Ryan] Coogler said, You’ve got to tell these stories. You’ve got to direct. When people you respect feel they have a clear vision for you to direct, they may be onto something. Also, even after “Black Panther,” I wasn’t reading scripts that felt like they were moving the needle forward. I didn’t want to go backward. I think some of that is because I reached the target too late.
My whole childhood, I wanted to make big dramas. But the hundred-million-dollar dramas don’t exist anymore. And so I was like: Well, I can either get paid to make Marvel films—most are not “Black Panther”—or I can make tiny dramas and barely support my family. I love those really beautiful indies. But as a breadwinner for four, surviving on those is really hard. And often, those are with up-and-coming filmmakers. You do get to a point where you’re like: Wait a second, I don’t want to know more than the other people in the room.
That said, I was reading scripts with a job-agnostic mindset. If I read something that I thought was additive in the world, and for me as a filmmaker to shoot, I would shoot it. If I read something that I felt was additive and made sense for me as a director, I would direct it. The first thing that felt right was the script that Barry [Jenkins] and producer Elishia Holmes brought to me. And again, if they are convinced I’m the right person for it, they may be onto something.
You mentioned you were looking for a script to move the needle forward. What stuck out to you about Jenkins’ script?
The first thing that stuck out was the breaking of convention. Structurally it’s ballsy as crap. It’s scary to upend the movie in the third act, especially because the conventions of sports movies work for a reason. To not end at the top seemed daring and exciting, like real life. I do think that’s something that resonates. Like the day after the Oscars, I still had to get up and start again. I think everybody has those moments.
I also grew up playing sports, so I was definitely attracted to that. The years my team won the league championship, the next season, we had to start from zero again. To me, that is so much more interesting. Then, in the case of Claressa, there’s also her resiliency outside the ring. I mean inside, too, of course. But the resiliency outside the ring is almost more inspirational and relatable. We all get knocked back down and have to pick ourselves back up. It all just felt more like life than most scripts I read.
I love the opening shot of this film; it’s an unbroken aerial view where we see a young Claressa running through the empty lots that dot her Flint neighborhood to watch boxing at the local gym. That view tells us everything about her socioeconomic standing and the financial constraints of the people who populate this area. Was that visual approach in the script or a shot that happened naturally?
Interestingly, I always thought I would leave space for the opening credits. But I found that it was so powerful as a shot, and there was so much information to take in that the credits detracted from it. And then we asked that our titles move to the back so that you have this space to do exactly what you said: process the environment. Flint is such a specific and special place, and most people don’t understand it. They just have a peripheral idea of Flint and the water crisis. They don’t actually know why Flint is, what Flint is.
We did an aerial shot that started, I think, 400 feet up, and you see no other people. There are very few other cars. There is this empty vastness about it. You get this sense of the American dream versus the American reality, which is what the film is about. You also get grit and resilience at that young age. To be running that far of a distance, chasing this thing she loves, communicates so much and sets the tone for this film.
Actor Brian Tyree Henry, director Rachel Morrison and actor Ryan Destiny on the set of THE FIRE INSIDE. Photo Credit: Sabrina LantosI read that you and Ryan took boxing lessons together. In what ways did that real-world experience contribute to the visual language of the film inside the ring?
I think it was so critical. I’m so happy about that. I also loved boxing so much that I stuck with it. But it helped with even more than the visual language. Understanding what it feels like to be hit or to hit informed everything, from how we shot the film to even the sound design. Because I’ve now lived it, so everything came from a much more experiential place. And then, as far as working with Ryan in the ring, we ended up choreographing a lot of it ourselves for one reason or another, let’s just put it that way. To communicate certain things emotionally, knowing how to translate that ourselves, how we’re gonna sell certain punches, we could choreograph it to the camera as it pertains to the emotional stakes of the narrative.
So much of the film remains within the ring; you don’t cut outside to announcers as much as one would expect. Why did you want to remain within the physical world of the ring?
I think there are two reasons why I felt like that subjectivity was so important. For one thing, her points don’t matter in this film. It becomes all about the antagonist in most boxing and sports movies. Every “Rocky,” every “Creed,” you’re building up to the arch nemesis. In our case, you have that a tiny bit with her rival Savannah, but then, in real life, Savannah wasn’t the person who made it to the gold medal fight, so she loses all significance. You don’t care about the opponents in the other fights, either. It’s less about the exterior world and more about Claressa’s interior.
Everything is more powerful when you can be subjectively tied to your main character. It helps put the audience in their shoes. And then that helps every blow feel harder. Every hit matters more. In all my work as a DP, I care about the point of view, the story we’re telling and why we should care.
You do such incredible work with both Brian Tyree Henry and Ryan Destiny. Since DPs work with actors as much as the director does, did your background as a cinematographer make the communication with actors easier to transition into?
I think it’s not even so much that I’m a DP, as I’m a DP-operator. I’ve spent 20 years in the ring, so to speak, with my actors. I’m usually the closest person to them. I feel like I’ve seen what works in terms of how other directors have communicated with them, what doesn’t work, and how DPs communicate with them and what doesn’t work. I tried to let that inform how I would work with my talent. I mean, I had such a great time. You could not have asked for a better first two-hander than Brian and Ryan. There was natural chemistry between them and then the trio of us. I trusted them, and they trusted me, and we would try things. It was beautiful.
(L to R) Ryan Destiny as Claressa Shields and Brian Tyree Henry as Jason Crutchfield in director Rachel Morrison’s THE FIRE INSIDE. Photo Credit: Sabrina LantosYou’re also wonderful at visually helping actors. There are so many lingering moments, especially with Henry, where the patience of your lensing just allows him to land the emotional resonance of a scene.
The film is pretty true to the vision I always had for it. The fight scene that’s a oner I always knew would be a oner. And then, in ...
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