Extremely tense new Irish thriller movie earns Ireland/UK home release

JOE spoke to rising star and Dublin-based actress Ciara Berkeley about the homegrown indie thriller.

Taking place entirely backstage at a major boxing event, the lead character is 'Terrible' Toni (Ciara Berkeley, Bad Sisters), a young English boxer with a dark past who dreams of being a world champion.

She finds herself in Ireland with the chance to box in front of a huge TV audience on a major fight card.

There's one big problem, though. On the evening of the fight, she is told by her shady coach (Sinead O'Riordan) and her even more shady promoters (a pair of brothers played by Ben Condron and Frank Prendergast) to throw the match.

As tensions escalate behind the scenes - on account of rivalries between fighters, medical emergencies and a potential murder inquiry - Toni wrestles with what decision to make.

Written and directed by Maurice O'Carroll (Dead Along the Way, Sucking Diesel), JOE praised Swing Bout upon its cinema release, saying that its exciting premise, pressure cooker setting and excellent performances result in an indie flick that "punches above its weight".

And now that the movie is out on digital release, JOE spoke to its rising star Ciara Berkeley - who recently starred in Emma and Youth's the Season-? at the Abbey Theatre - about the thriller.

Talking about being cast in Swing Bout, the English actress - who is now based in Dublin - told us that at first she was "extremely nervous" to play a boxer because she had "never done anything like that before".

That said, she loved the script as it was less about boxing and more about the personal struggles of Toni.

"As soon as I picked up the sides and started reading, I knew that there was way more of an interior struggle in this character and way more complexity in her inner mind and all of these battles that she's going through personally," Berkeley explains.

"So I was like: 'I can relate to that maybe better than actually physically boxing.'"

In the press notes for Swing Bout, writer-director O'Carroll notes that initially, he did not believe Berkeley was what he was looking for in the part of Toni.

However, her audition convinced him to cast her, with the filmmaker later calling Berkeley "a gift from the gods".

When we ask the actress if she was aware of O'Carroll's doubts, she laughs: "I was. He told me a few times," before adding:

"I think we both agreed that I did not look like a boxer, and I didn't even understand how to hold myself. But I think what I loved so much about the script was, as I was saying, all of these huge complexities in Toni and her massive backstory.

"And we actually bonded a lot over talking about that film Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold. And in that same vein, this is someone who wants to pursue something because she's trying to right a lot of personal wrongs that she's been dealt.

"I think as we started to uncover more about who Toni could be, we really built the character again together as someone who still bears the hardships of what she's been through on her skin and in her personality.

"She's found boxing as something that has called to her and is a new, noble, dignified, right, true, and honest path that she can go down. So she's new to it. And that insecurity also plays into her story when we see her in Swing Bout."

While the audience never enters the ring with Toni in the movie, with the story taking place entirely in the run-up to her big fight, Berkeley did lots of preparation in order to properly carry herself as a boxer, something she accomplishes with aplomb.

On this, Berkeley explains: "You don't really see any full-on boxing in the film. So what I was really trying to get down and what our boxing coaches, Liam O'Griffin and Terry O'Neill, were telling us was that every boxer has their own specific style, even down to how they exhale on a punch. It's all very unique to them.

"And so I would watch a video of Clarissa Shields doing a shadow boxing warm-up, where someone's just filming her doing the entire thing. It's eight minutes long.

"It's all working up the muscles and the body. It was just fascinating to watch because you can see her mentally warming up, as well as physically warming up at the same time.

"And it goes from practically warming up her body to developing that bravado and that performance, which she will use to psych out her opponents, because that's a huge part of it as well.

"Every unique technique that a boxer has benefits them, obviously, physically to warm up. But also, it's part of their nasty, gritty persona that every boxer has. And so you have to develop this whole alter ego that you get into every time.

"There are so many videos of amazing female boxers doing their own specific, unique warmups and shadow boxing on YouTube, and I would just watch them for hours and try and curate a specific one for Toni."

As for how this preparation benefited her character, Berkeley adds:

"[Toni's] at the beginning. She hasn't quite nailed it all. And she also doesn't always believe in herself 100% of the time.

"You can see that doubt where you're shadow boxing and you're warming up in the dressing room, but you're also trying to convince people and convince yourself as well: Would I be able to knock that person out? Will I be able to completely destroy her in this match?

"And I have to make her think that I can because she's watching me all the time, even when we're just supposed to be warming up or going to and from the medics. It's very paranoid in a way, and you can see that in her."

On top of this, Berkeley underwent a gruelling three months of boxing sessions.

"It was amazing. I mean, of course, it had to be done because we had to know how to do it, but it was very full on because, as we were just saying there, you can learn how to box - it's another thing to learn how to prep yourself for a boxing match," she notes.

"So we would learn the techniques of boxing, but then I would also have to learn shadow boxing at the same time. And then also a way for Toni, specifically, to walk and move in a way that she would be if she were warming up for a match and had that on her mind and that goal in sight.

"It was great craic. It was really intense, but it was very fun."

Swing Bout is available on digital download in Ireland and the UK now.