The Fire Inside with Rachel Morrison and Elizabeth Banks (Ep. 522)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Rachel Morrison discusses her new film, The Fire Inside, with fellow Director Elizabeth Banks in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, she discusses working with her lead to make the fights look authentic on camera, balancing pace and visual variety in the boxing matches to make each encounter entertaining, and crafting a fight film with an atypical structure that puts the focus on a previously unseen conflict. The film tells the story of Claressa Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan, who pushes past all limitations to become the first American woman to win the Olympic gold in boxing. But even at the pinnacle of success, Claressa has to reconcile with the fact that not all dreams are created equal, and her real fight has only just begun. See photos and a summary of this event below: https://dga.org/en/Events/2025/January2025/TheFireInside_QnA_1224

Transcript

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0:00.3	I think, you know, it might have been a little naive of me. I mean, thank God it worked out. But I had this
0:04.8	idea that, you know, between my cinematography skills and everything else that I could cheat what I needed to,
0:09.8	that we'd get her as good as we could and that I could put stunt actors in. The reality is it had to be her.
0:15.8	And, you know, thankfully she did get there. She put in the work. She did all the things. You know, I made her almost like,
0:21.6	look me in the eyes and pinky swear
0:22.9	that she was going to like go full,
0:24.7	you know,
0:25.0	Merrill Street,
0:25.8	like Christian Bale on this role
0:27.2	and like really transform.
0:29.0	And she did.
0:52.8	Yeah. Hello, and welcome back to the director's cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:55.8	In this episode, the story of the first American woman gold medalist in boxing is explored, and director Rachel Morrison's
1:01.0	biographical drama, The Fire Inside. The film tells the story of Poresa Shields, a boxer from
1:08.0	Flint, Michigan, who pushes past all limitations to become the first American
1:12.2	woman to win the Olympic gold in boxing. But even at the pinnacle of success, Clarissa has to reconcile
1:18.7	with the fact that not all dreams are created equal, and her real fight has only just begun.
1:25.3	In addition to the fire inside, Morrison's other directorial credits include an
1:29.9	episode of the TV miniseries Homemade and episodes of the series The Mandalorian, American
1:35.7	Crime Story, High Town, and The Morning Show. Following a screening of the film at the DGA
1:43.3	Theatre in Los Angeles, Morrison spoke with
1:45.9	director Elizabeth Banks about filming The Fire Inside.
	...

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