In Christy, writer-director David Michôd turns his gaze away from the brittle myths of masculine bravado that have long defined his work, and towards a woman whose strength was forged in public, pressure and pain. The film charts the life of boxing trailblazer Christy Martin not as a sports legend alone, but as someone who learned how performance – in the ring, in love, and in survival – could become a form of armour.
Following his chats with Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster and the real-life Christy Martin (you can read their exchange here), Peter Gray spoke with Michôd and Katy O’Brian, who plays Martin’s fiercest rival-turned-wife Lisa Holewyne, about what it means to perform when the stakes are life-altering; how Michôd’s storytelling shifted from men of illusion to a woman grounded in force and truth; and whether embodying that kind of resilience reshaped O’Brian’s own definition of strength.
I want to say congratulations on the film first of all. I told Sydney, Ben and Christy before that it was on my list of non-negotiable list for TIFF. If I was flying all the way there, it’s one of the movies I have to see.
Katy O’Brian: Thank you.
David Michôd: Thanks mate.
Katy O’Brian: What an amazing way to open.
I wanted to ask about the theme of performance throughout this film, because Christy has this fight persona, with the costume and things like that. For both of you, how do you see performance as a kind of survival mechanism? For Christy, Katy, for your character Lisa, and even the way, David, you tell a story?
David Michôd: It’s very true that there are a number of key moments in the movie where you see Christy putting on a pink robe, or, you know, before the Vegas press conference, putting her lipstick on and glamming herself up. There are always moments of donning the disguise – almost as a mode of self-preservation. In a way, we all do it. It’s what we start learning to do from the moment we’re born. You start turning random sensory data into concepts to kind of turn yourself into a narrative that makes sense for some people, like Christy Martin. It’s a life or death process. Did that answer the question? (laughs).
Katy O’Brian: I think what’s interesting is that Lisa is not a performative person. Just very, what you see is what you get. I think that’s something that at the point in the film where she comes into train with Christy, that’s what Christy needed to see at that time. That there are real people out there that are genuine. You don’t always have to have your guard up. You don’t always have to put a mask on. That kind of thing.
In playing Lisa, this is a story about a woman fighting for her life, and not just in the ring. Did it change the way you think about what strength really means in playing Lisa?
Katy O’Brian: It didn’t change the way that I think about what strength really means. I think when society thinks of strength, they think of, I don’t know, muscles and adrenaline, or something. I’ve never seen it that way. I think there’s strength in everyone and in so many things that even may be seen as soft. I don’t think it changed the way that I see those things. I think that this (film) is an example of someone whose resilient and came out on top from a situation that was horrible. A situation that anyone can fall into. I think it makes that very real and relatable for a lot of people who have some kind of misconception about what strength is and what these types of relationships would entail.
And David, I’ll say you’ve made films about delusional men with Animal Kingdom and The Rover. What’s changed for you as a storyteller when you turned your gaze toward a woman whose strength is built on survival rather than illusion?
David Michôd: That’s a really good question. That’s a very good question. Normally the films I’ve made in the past have been about people thinking they understand how the world works, and then coming to realise somewhere at the back end of the movie that they’ve been wrong about everything. This is more a woman who actually is in touch with who she is. At the beginning of the movie the world is telling her that she cannot be who she is. So she starts building these layers of self-imposed delusion, in a kind of denial for self-preservation purposes. More than anything I wanted to make a movie about a woman with a ferocity in her that was understandable. And I got that with Christy.
Christy is screening in Australian theatres from January 8th, 2026.
