{"id":204778,"date":"2025-09-06T10:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T10:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/204778\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T10:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T10:50:10","slug":"sydney-sweeney-lands-a-knockout-at-tiff-with-christy-stoking-oscar-buzz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/204778\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Sweeney lands a knockout at TIFF with \u2018Christy,\u2019 stoking Oscar buzz"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Sydney Sweeney<\/a> came to the Toronto International Film Festival<\/a> wanting to talk about her new film \u201cChristy,\u201d not her American Eagle ad campaign. After a rapturous response to the movie, she\u2019s getting her wish.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old, Emmy-nominated actor landed immediate Oscar buzz for her performance in David Mich\u00f4d\u2019s biopic of the boxer Christy Salters Martin. For the role, Sweeney transforms into the female boxing trailblazer who emerged out of West Virginia as the \u201cCoal Miner\u2019s Daughter\u201d to rise to the top of her then-nascent sport.<\/p>\n

Following a rousing reception from the TIFF audience Friday, Sweeney stood beside Martin on the stage of the Princess of Wales Theatre, calling it the experience of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream come true, as an actor, as a person,\u201d Sweeney said.<\/p>\n

While Martin had a career decorated with belts and a Sports Illustrated cover, her story is defined by struggle. She was raised to deny her gay identity and instead married her trainer, Jim Martin. After years of psychological and physical abuse, he attempted to kill her in 2010, repeatedly stabbing her and shooting her. Jim Martin was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died last November.<\/p>\n

Sweeney\u2019s performance alongside Ben Foster, who plays Jim Martin, was swiftly hailed as her best yet. TIFF has long been a launching pad for Oscar campaigns before, and the thunderous reception for \u201cChristy,\u201d and particularly Sweeney,<\/a> seemed sure to add her to the awards conversation.<\/p>\n

Regardless, \u201cChristy\u201d gives Sweeney the best big-screen showcase yet of her rapidly evolving career. And given that she appears throughout it in short dark hair with a more muscular build, it’s also her grittiest and least glamorous performance to date.<\/p>\n

Martin, praising Sweeney, explained how her boxing persona \u2014 bombastic, egotistical \u2014 didn\u2019t reflect her shyness or her desire to help others. Since her near-death experience, Martin has worked to help domestic violence survivors<\/p>\n

\u201cI have those two parts of my personality. And I think that\u2019s why Sydney Sweeney is doing such an awesome job,\u201d said Martin. \u201cShe got to be this totally different person that none of you expected. She wasn\u2019t the beautiful, sexy Sydney. She was the tough, rugged Christy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into the premiere, Sweeney deflected questions about her recent American Eagle ad campaign<\/a> with the tagline \u201cSydney Sweeney has great jeans\u201d \u2014 a pun on having \u201cgreat genes.\u201d Critics accused the ad for glorifying whiteness. The retailer has said the campaign \u201cis and always was about the jeans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the festival, Sweeney told Vanity Fair<\/a> she was going to TIFF to support her movie. \u201cI\u2019m not there to talk about jeans,\u201d she said. \u201cThe movie\u2019s about Christy and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be there to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChristy\u201d will be released in theaters Nov. 7 by its co-producer Black Bear in the company\u2019s first foray into distribution. Sweeney also serves as a producer on \u201cChristy,\u201d with Martin a consultant.<\/p>\n

Sweeney said she trained three times a day for two to three months to prepare for the boxing scenes. She had a boxing coach, a nutritionist and weight trainers. \u201cAnd a lot of Chick-fil-A,\u201d she added. \u201cA lot of milkshakes, a lot of protein shakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was incredible being able to completely embody such a powerful woman,\u201d said Sweeney. \u201cI felt even stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Sydney Sweeney came to the Toronto International Film Festival wanting to talk about her new…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":204779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110971,112930,171,112931,21218,64287,85256,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-204778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-christy","9":"tag-christy-salters-martin","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jim-martin","12":"tag-sydney-sweeney","13":"tag-tiff","14":"tag-toronto-international-film-festival","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}