Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby is a 2004 American sports drama. It was directed by Clint Eastwood, who also plays the leading male role of the boxing trainer. The screenplay was written by Paul Haggis based on stories from the collection Rope Burns (2000) by boxing trainer Jerry Boyd, who wrote under the pseudonym F. X. Toole. At the start of the film, thirty-three-year-old waitress Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), from a poor background, comes to a rundown Los Angeles gym. She wants to become a professional boxer and persuades the reserved old trainer Frankie Dunn to start coaching her. The film is set in the world of women's professional boxing, between the gym, training and the ring. The source material was written by a man from the boxing world who worked as a cutman and assistant trainer. Hilary Swank was not a boxer and spent several months preparing for the role with a professional trainer. One of the opponents is played by Lucia Rijker, a real champion in boxing and kickboxing. At the 77th Academy Awards in 2005, the film won Best Picture, Clint Eastwood won for directing and Hilary Swank for Best Actress. Eastwood was also nominated for Best Actor.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

The source is the short story collection Rope Burns from 2000. Its author is Jerry Boyd (1930–2002), who wrote under the pseudonym F. X. Toole. He took up boxing only after the age of forty, when he studied under trainer Dub Huntley, and later worked as a cutman and assistant trainer. He published it at around seventy and did not live to see the film released, dying on 2 September 2002. According to his biography, the character of Maggie Fitzgerald was based on boxer Juli Crockett, with whom Boyd worked as a cutman and assistant trainer. Paul Haggis wrote the screenplay without a commission after he was fired from the series Family Law, and it took four years to sell it.

Fight choreography

Hilary Swank prepared for the role of a boxer with professional trainer Grant L. Roberts, in the ring and in the gym. According to an article about the film, she trained about five hours a day for roughly five months and gained 8.6 kg of muscle mass. Filming ran in June and July 2004. During preparation she contracted a staph infection from a blister on her foot that could have been life-threatening, and she did not tell Eastwood about it. The opponent Billie Osterman is played by Lucia Rijker, a professional boxer and kickboxer. In boxing she won the IWBA titles (1988–1989), the WIBF title at super welterweight (1997) and the WIBO title at junior welterweight (1998), and in kickboxing the WKA and ISKA titles. We did not find in the sources whether she also took part in the filming as an adviser.

People and martial arts

• Clint EastwoodDirector
• Clint EastwoodActor — as Frankie Dunn· Boxing (portrays the art on screen)
• Hilary SwankActor — as Maggie Fitzgerald· Boxing (portrays the art on screen)
• Lucia RijkerActor — as Billie "Blue Bear" Osterman· Boxing (real practitioner)

Awards

• Won · Academy Award, Best Picture (2005)
• Won · Academy Award, Best Director (2005)
• Won · Academy Award, Best Actress (2005) — Hilary Swank