Sydney Sweeney's Co-Star From The Christy Martin Biopic Explains How It Felt Getting ‘Punched Quite A Few Times' By Her
Sydney Sweeney is taking on a different kind of role, as she's playing a trailblazing boxer in the upcoming Christy Martin biopic, proving she's more than ready to throw down. For the sports flick, the Madame Web star underwent a massive physical transformation for the role, gaining 30 pounds of muscle and diving headfirst into the grueling demands of portraying one of the most iconic fighters of the '90s. Now, her co-star, Katy O'Brian, is explaining how it felt getting 'punched quite a few times' by Sweeney.
During a red carpet interview shared at the Eddington premiere via an X post by Variety, Katy O'Brian opened up about her and Sydney Sweeney's intense fight scenes on set. O'Brian shared a fun take on taking jabs from her on-screen sparring partner:
[I] got punched quite a few times, yeah…. It felt good. Yeah, I loved it. It was great. It better read well on camera.
The Mandalorian actress, a powerhouse in her own right who plays one of Martin's opponents in the film, didn't seem to mind getting hit a few times. However, that begs the question of what it was like for her to hit Sweeney, who signed up to get ripped for her role. O'Brian admitted that she wasn't so keen on hitting her colleague, and her reasoning makes a lot of sense:
That did not feel good. Because, even with the extra 30 pounds [she gained], I still would have like 20 or 30 pounds on her. So it never feels good, but she didn't seem to care very much.
That's putting it mildly. Still, when O'Brian expressed concern about hurting Sydney Sweeney before a particularly rough scene, the young actress brushed it off completely. O'Brian recalled:
She was like, 'If you break my nose, that's fine.'
Now that's commitment to a role. The yet-untitled film wrapped production last November and is directed by David Michôd (The King) from a script co-written with Mirrah Foulkes. It focuses on Christy Martin's incredible career, her groundbreaking success in a male-dominated sport and the darker chapters of her personal life, including surviving a near-fatal attack by her then-husband in 2010. Martin herself was present on set, something O'Brian described as both 'intimidating' and 'awesome.'
Sweeney, for her part, has previously shared the toll the transformation took on her body. In a W magazine interview, she talked about her body becoming "completely different" as a result of her physical transformation. Sweeney stated that it was "crazy" how her "butt got huge" and her "boobs got bigger." Nevertheless, she found it to be an "amazing" experience, and she felt "strong" as a result of it.
Christy Martin's legacy is already immortalized in the documentary Untold: Deal With the Devil, (which is streamable with a Netflix subscription). However, Martin's life seems poised to gain a new layer of resonance through Sydney Sweeney's performance and, if early behind-the-scenes anecdotes like O'Brian's are any indication, she's left every ounce of herself in the ring.
Meanwhile, Katy O'Brian has a few notable titles on the 2025 movie schedule and beyond. She lined up to star in the new remake of The Running Man, a movie she started right after wrapping on the boxing biopic (which may or may not have made her a bit more cautious about getting her nose broken). Fans can also still see her performance as Kodiak in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which is in theaters now!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Virgin by Lorde is a layered work of performance art – her smartest references explained
With her latest album, Virgin, Lorde is stretching the concept of the virgin beyond the common definition. Some may consider the album's title and its cover art – an X-ray of Lorde's pelvis showing an IUD – to be contradictory. But while Lorde could still be using contraception for purposes beyond birth control, its presence shows that the album doesn't shy away from discussions of sexual activities and the risk of pregnancy (two themes that are clearly discussed in the track Clearblue). As she also shows with her approach to gender in the album's opening song, Hammer ('Some days, I'm a woman, some days, I'm a man'), Lorde is testing and muddying common dualisms. The scientific perspective offered by the album art forces the viewer to look through Lorde's body, but we are also looking beyond her reproductive organs. Certainly, Lorde sometimes conceptualises virginity as something that can only be given once, as she explains on David. Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here. In Hammer, her quip 'don't know if it's love or if it's ovulation' is a comedic musing on whether an experience is profoundly transcendental or just the product of hormones. But what strikes me is the fact that her concepts and themes are not static or singular. This album is exploring the idea of being made, or even remade, through experience. In If She Could See Me Now, Lorde recounts how painful moments 'made me a woman'. Like French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's phrase 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman', Lorde is exploring how her body is being changed by what she has been through. As she sings in What Was That?: 'I try to let whatever has to pass through me pass through.' Again, while she on the one hand describes something moving through her body, she's also describing an attempt to move through something that has happened to her – turning a passive experience into one of acceptance and action. Here we might think of another notion of virginity: a substance before it is processed. Virginity is part of the experience of being changed, or reborn, into something else. This is not to say that Virgin is uninterested in the body. Lorde's discussion of her eating disorder in Broken Glass is a case in point. The visuals accompanying Virgin emphasise Lorde's status as a performance artist. The crescendo of the What Was That video is a spontaneous public performance of Virgin's first single. When Lorde released the second single, Man of the Year, she posted on her website: TRYING TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE A FONTANA, LIKE PAINTING BITTEN BY A MAN, LIKE THE NEW YORK EARTH ROOM. THE SOUND OF MY REBIRTH. The simile here, or the idea of making music sound 'like' visual art, emphasises the tactility of Lorde's work. Each artistic piece referenced here is concerned with physically intervening into the conventional art gallery set-up. Italian artist Lucio Fontana's Spacial Concept series (1960) included slashed canvases a disruption of the body of the artwork with yonic - in other words, vulva-like - imagery (indeed, it challenges how 'damaged' artworks are usually hidden from audiences, waiting to be restored). Similarly, American artist Jasper Johns' Painting Bitten by a Man (1961) is an encaustic painting (derived from the Greek word for 'burned in'), which shows off the markings of someone who has bitten into the canvas. The music video for Man of the Year is filmed in a room that is filled with dirt. This is a clear nod to American sculptor Walter de Maria's New York Earth Room (1977). The piece also fills a white room in New York with this unexpected material: earth inside a building, where mushrooms can grow. The video for Man of the Year may also be referencing another artwork. Lorde is shown using duct tape to bind her breasts. While this points to Lorde's exploration of her body and gender identity, the material also recalls Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork, Comedian. Offering phallic imagery to Fontana's yonic imagery, Cattelan's piece mirrors Lorde's concern with ontology, or definition. What makes something art? But just as Lorde is binding herself in new ways, she is unbinding herself in others. In If She Could See Me Now, Lorde declares: 'I'm going back to the clay.' Here that the album recalls the Prometheus myth: the ancient Greek story that Prometheus fashioned humans out of mud (or clay) and gave his creations fire. The closing track, David, offers another ancient allusion, this time about David and Goliath. David – who, as a harpist, is a musician like Lorde – kills the giant man with stones. This reference furthers the song's discussion of the problem of treating a man, a lover, like a god. This subtle reference to the killing of Goliath adds another layer to the euphemism for male testicles explored in Shapeshifter: 'Do you have the stones?'. Perhaps Virgin is doing what Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) did with the Prometheus tale: both exploring what happens when a man tries to create and determine the fate of another being, whether nature or nurture make a person, and how a new body can be refashioned from old ones. After listening to the entire album, I was struck by how Lorde is exploring different facets of another question: who, exactly, is Lorde? Especially now that she is embracing who she is beyond the yoke of other people – or the demons – that have shaped her? Virgin shows that Lorde now wants to return 'to the clay', or to remake who she is, now that she is unbound by Prometheus. This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from The Conversation UK may earn a commission. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Lillian Hingley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Amyl & The Sniffers Defend Bob Vylan, Kneecap Over Glastonbury Backlash
Amyl & The Sniffers have issued a pointed statement of solidarity with Bob Vylan and Kneecap in the wake of growing media backlash surrounding the artists' pro-Palestinian messages at Glastonbury 2025, accusing the press of misrepresenting what they say was a festival-wide stance. Posting to Instagram Stories on Monday (July 1), the Australian punk rock band criticized the British media's 'frenzy' over select sets that included political speech, specifically targeting how coverage framed Bob Vylan and Kneecap as outliers. More from Billboard Foo Fighters Celebrate 30th Anniversary of Debut Album With Emotional New Track 'Today's Song' At First, Kapo 'Didn't Dare' to Release Afrobeat Music, But Then He Leaned Into 'What Truly Made Me Feel Most Unique' Quavo 'Ready to Bring It Home' to Perform at The Players Party Ahead of 2025 MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta 'The British media in a frenzy about Bob Vylan and Kneecap but artists all weekend at Glastonbury from pop to rock to rap to punk to DJs spoke up onstage and there were toned of flags on every streamed set,' the band wrote. 'Trying to make it look like just a couple of isolated incidents and a couple of 'bad bands' so it appears the public isn't as anti-genocide as it is, and trying to make it look like Bob and Kneecap are one-offs, instead of that the status quo has shifted majorly and that people are concerned and desperate for our governments to listen.' They continued: 'And if you don't want politics in music don't blame the musicians, blame the politicians and journalists, and the political landscape in general, for not doing their job, and there'll be more and more of [this] until it stops.' The statement follows Bob Vylan's controversial performance at Glastonbury, during which the punk-rap duo led chants condemning the Israeli Defense Forces. The BBC later confirmed it 'should have pulled' the livestream and did not re-air the performance. Irish rap group Kneecap, who followed Vylan on the West Holts stage, waved Palestinian flags and made their own statements during their set. Amyl & The Sniffers — who also performed at the festival — delivered a politically charged set of their own. During a passionate moment onstage, frontwoman Amy Taylor used the platform to discuss colonization, Australia's treatment of Indigenous people, and the importance of political expression. 'They want us to shut the f–k up,' Taylor said to the crowd. 'Because if we think about Palestine, then back home in Australia, we think about the Indigenous people there… and that's disgusting.' Their comments were met with roaring applause, and clips of the speech circulated widely online — though notably, they did not attract the same level of media criticism as Bob Vylan or Kneecap. Glastonbury 2025 saw a significant wave of political statements from artists across genres, with Palestinian flags visible at nearly every major stage. Acts from the pop, punk, indie, and dance scenes voiced solidarity, many calling out what they see as governmental inaction and media silence on the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Amyl & The Sniffers' statement adds to the growing chorus of artists using their platforms to speak out, echoing a shift in live music where festival stages have increasingly become vehicles for protest and visibility. The band's message is clear: they stand behind artists who speak up — and won't back down from the fight for accountability and awareness. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Black America Web
4 hours ago
- Black America Web
‘The Bear' ‘Worm' Episode Exposes Microaggressions Black Women Face In The Workplace
Source: Photo: Courtesy of FX / Photo: Courtesy of FX Sydney Adamu was minding her business, unraveling her box braids on Season 4, Episode 4 of The Bear, when a voice on the other end of the line interrupted her much-deserved moment of peace. The call, which was presented as an opportunity, was more of a disguised demand and blatant disregard of Sydney's boundaries. Shapiro, Sydney's employee Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto's rival, had been interested in hiring her since season two. Sydney's Black girl magic and talent are the secret sauce at 'The Bear' and Shapiro knows it; he was counting on her NOT to know it. Industries benefit from Black women feeling like they can not say no. Shaprio was so invested in his dreams, he couldn't sense Sydney's hesitation. This is a familiar experience for many Black women, including myself. We are expected to leap at any opportunity because there are so few out there for us. The sous chef, played masterfully by Golden Globe-winner Ayo Edebiri, had ONE day off to get her extra small knotless braids done. She deserved that after a week of dealing with pasta timings and scallop placements. But that was stolen from her by entitlement. According to the American Psychological Association , microaggressions are 'brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group.' Written by Edebiri and Lionel Boyce, the episode is titled 'Worms.' It reflects the realities of what it is like to be a Black woman in the workplace. It shows the tough choices black women have to make at work and the ways they are punished for prioritizing themselves. Microaggressions can come in the form of unreasonable expectations. Despite Sydney having an important hair appointment, Shapiro wouldn't taken no for an answer. He crossed the line instead by asking how much time the hair appointment would be. He felt entitled to her time. He incorrectly assumed it would be two hours. She corrected him, and he was in shock about the length of time exceeding his expectations. Her appointment was in her cousin's living room, but it was still an appointment. He shared that shock, putting her in an awkward position. He refused to let it go. It was unfathomable to him that he might have to ask to see her in advance. Eager to end the conversation, Sydney moved her appointment. She accommodated him because he pressed her. He felt comfortable pressing her. That is a problem. Chefs have insane schedules, and it's understandable that they might call at the last minute, but it is not understandable that they wouldn't accept a refusal from someone who isn't even not working for them yet. That's cringey and a red flag. You shouldn't have to provide context about your edges, kinks, and coils for someone to accept your word. Related: Quinta Brunson, Niecy Nash And Ayo Edebiri Win Big At The Emmys Sydney arrived at Shapiro's soon-to-be restaurant, on her day off with her hair tucked underneath a knitted cap to M.O.P.'s iconic 'Ante Up' blasting as she walked in. He then asked her if she heard of M.O.P. and offered some token facts about the group. There's a fine line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. There's nothing wrong with a white person acknowledging Black culture, but there is something wrong with them assuming someone's musical preferences because of the color of their skin. Mansplaining hip-hop history to earn brownie points is also not it. This is one of many microagressions in this episode. His pointed comment about a desire to infuse Afro-Caribbean influences into the restaurant's menu was a desperate attempt to entice the well-rounded chef by appealing to her Blackness, and placing her in a culinary box. He makes assumptions instead of collaborating. It's uncomfortable. Sydney called Shapiro after her appointment, and he asks if she has seen Good Hair . See where this is going? This happens across industries industry. Shapiro promised Sydney autonomy, but his actions prove he isn't capable of seeing her as his professional equal. His performative allyship shadows his every good intention. Janicza Bravo directed the story with care, zooming in on the little moments that cause friction in the professional lives of Black women. The Italian family running The Bear may not be experts on intersectionality, but they are consistent. They expose everyone to the same 'energetically musty' environment. Shapiro pretended to value Sydney more than he did. Sometimes, a well-meaning white person can be more dangerous than an outwardly hateful one. That said, the Berzattos are broke, and it is truly awful that Sydney has to choose between sustainable income and emotional security. We should be able to come to work, enjoy our day off, and get paid enough to live off without being asked invasive questions about our beauty procedures. Shapiro insulted Sydney the second that she said no to him. He started attacking her skills and acting like she was missing out on a great opportunity to learn from him. The talent he praised her for and was chasing after suddenly wasn't good enough because it wouldn't bend to his will. He didn't feel disappointed that she wasn't joining him. He felt disrespected. This was a person who saw Sydney as a woke accessory. No amount of anti-racist reading lists was going to fix his core issue. He expected her to be grateful for the chance to assist him. Did he call her a slur? No. But he was the disrespectful one. Sydney went with the devil she knew. Shapiro accused her of staying on a sinking ship, but that was her decision to make, and she had the right to make it. Season 4 of The Bear is now streaming on Hulu. SEE ALSO 'The Bear' 'Worm' Episode Exposes Microaggressions Black Women Face In The Workplace was originally published on
