Netflix Just Added Lauded Boxing Movie

One of the best boxing movies of all time has been added to Netflix. Fans can now watch Million Dollar Baby on the streaming service, and it’s a film that had a lot of success when it was released in theatres. The film is directed by Clint Eastwood, who is also the leading actor. It also stars Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.

Released in 2004, Million Dollar Baby earned $216.8 million at the box office. It has a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned seven Academy Award nominations with four wins. Million Dollar Baby won Best Picture, Eastwood won Best Director, Swank won Best Actress and Freeman won Best Supporting Actor.

“Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a veteran Los Angeles boxing trainer who keeps almost everyone at arm’s length, except his old friend and associate Eddie ‘Scrap Iron’ Dupris (Morgan Freeman),” the synopsis states. “When Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) arrives in Frankie’s gym seeking his expertise, he is reluctant to train the young woman, a transplant from working-class Missouri. Eventually, he relents, and the two form a close bond that will irrevocably change them both.”

In an interview with Emanuel Levy in 2005, Swank said she was emotional after reading the script for the first time. “When I read the script, it was such an incredible story. It was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read,” she said. “Paul Haggis, who adapted the stories, did an amazing job. I laughed and I cried and I was inspired. Then I was told that Cling Eastwood was directing it, and I just about fell off my chair, because to have both of those things come together is like a dream come true for an actor.”

Swank also talked about her training process to become a top boxer. “I trained like 4-5 hours every day, six days a week, for three months,” she said. “I was asked to gain 10 pounds of muscles, and I ended up gaining 19 pounds of muscle. But that’s my job as an actor. If I’m supposed to play a boxer, I’m going to do the best I can to look like a boxer. I was eating 210 grams of protein a day, and that entailed eating every hour.” Million Dollar Baby also stars Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up) and Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Endgame).