Emily Bett Rickards on Queen of the Ring & Playing Mildred Burke

[00:00:09] Emily thank you all for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged. Awesome so excited to be here thank you. Congrats on Queen of the Ring yeah everybody's been talking about it. Dude yeah it's uh I'm so glad it's out there um she's such an incredible woman and I think this is how she'd want to be remembered and we're really excited that her story is kind of getting the respect we think she deserves. So she was a trailblazer in the wrestling history. Totally I mean she's the first female wrestler first million dollar female athlete like wild. What else

[00:00:39] aspects of what aspects of her life and like personality did you find more compelling to bring this to the screen? You know she was this I mean she was a woman who had this aspiration to do something that she hadn't really any basis for right like women weren't allowed to wrestle it was illegal at the time we're talking 30s 40s 50s right that was her era at least the era we tell in our story and and women weren't really even allowed at matches so come on

[00:01:09] everyone before the age of everyone before the age of everyone before iPhone screens Facebook you know everything like that like we're we're talking entertainment is stage theater carnivals um wrestling matches fights that kind of thing um and women weren't really even allowed at these matches that the only women at the matches she said were the girlfriends of of the wrestlers and that sort of thing so she finds herself at a match and she

[00:01:33] looks at the looks at the looks at the looks at the looks at the looks at the looks at the looks at the looks at the man on stage and is like that's what I want to do and it's just kind of unbelievable right like you're just like wow like she wants she just saw the way that she wanted to be using her body and she loved the story aspect of it I think she put that together pretty fast as well as she started to get into it and um I just find that so inspiring you know. Definitely what do you think about like her story like her in ring storytelling style set about her outside the ring?

[00:02:01] I don't know you know my friend Brady Malibu who's a wrestler I asked him I was like so who is Brady Malibu right like to you he's like it's me turned up all the way up right and it's like there's this persona and so I took that as as I talked to more wrestlers especially at OVW who shared their love of wrestling and their storytelling with me um sort of like how wrestling had changed their life I really that really sort of

[00:02:23] fueled um or informed who I thought Mildred was you know she wanted to be standing up in front of people saying something using her body using her voice being feminine being tough and she wanted to prove to everyone that this was possible not only for um women but women of color and anyone else who felt like they were marginalized and whatnot like get out there and and and show them what you're worth because they're not going to believe it until you show them and I think that that was what she stood for in the ring.

[00:02:50] Hmm you uh you underwent some intense training for this uh what was the most challenging part preparing physically and mentally for a role like this? Um you know I always say that as challenging as it all was like it was so passion fueled to figure out who she was so like there is a little bit of ease that comes when something is something like that right like I wanted to figure out who Mildred was so badly that putting on the muscle was uh was a part of that and um you know I I didn't I wasn't eating meat and stuff at the time I was

[00:03:20] I was more pescatarian but I was having to switch to chicken and a lot of chicken a lot of chicken breast specifically because that was the the easiest way to get the protein by eating whole foods um for in that three month period we just didn't have that long and um so kind of switching sort of the diet and like making that whole diet a part of my routine um was probably the most challenging part but also so doable like once we get over the hump of learning something like it becomes second nature so yeah you

[00:03:48] I mean you trained with some professional wrestlers what was the one big advice that they gave you? I mean I think something wrestlers all do and one thing Mildred definitely gave me was get back up right get back up and also the before I started running the ropes the advice was it'll hurt I was like it's the ropes no the ropes hurt there you go but you know also giving the confidence to have a persona was big right like

[00:04:17] that's acting but finding out what was right for her and the wrestlers also really helped me with that like all of her blah blah blah like the bravado that she had was something I think she wasn't technically allowed to have as a woman during that time and so so the advice really came into like wrestling's a lot about believing in yourself you know and I think that that that's really cool

[00:04:40] any advice for Stephen Amell since he's wrestled in pay-per-views or nothing come on I know such a missed opportunity but uh but no but Kelly Berglund who was on heels with him was definitely informative for me um she had she'd been in the ring before and as an actress so that was that was really exciting and we had so many um talented coaches around Al Snow Dougie Basha I mean the you're only as good as your teachers and I really did have the best Camille Breckhouse Tony Storm I mean we're talking we're

[00:05:09] talking like actual like actual professionals so um I I was in good hands was there a specific scene that hit you the hardest while filming there's a scene with Damaris who plays Babs Wingo that just feels like historically incredibly important um and and not only that I think really spoke to who Mildred and Babs were I mean there there's these women standing up in front of you know thousands

[00:05:34] of people when women's wrestling is illegal um you know Babs is a person of color and and Mildred is Caucasian and you have this everything is illegal about them you know it's just like it's crazy and you have this huge crowd around them that's that's um supporting them and changing history and together I think that that bond and that that magic um is something we can all keep learning from today and and hopefully we can take with us to make us just better people and better better humans and

[00:06:03] better people towards each other you had some intense scenes or Burke had some intense scenes with uh Billy Wolf how did you uh how would you describe the dynamics between these two characters um tumultuous I think violent you know Billy wasn't um he he wasn't a great person um you know he was Josh describes him as very hard to play and um Josh does a phenomenal job with somebody who is really quite toxic you know Billy believed in women wrestlers lady wrestlers as he calls them

[00:06:32] before anyone else did and was a genius in terms of bringing storytelling to wrestling but he was a violent person um I would say misogynist and and he just wasn't uh he was you know he was domestic they had domestic abuse in their relationship and um really really difficult to be with someone like that who's also your manager and and holds everything against you because at a woman of the time the only way Mildred thought that she could have stake in the enterprise that they built was marrying him

[00:06:59] um but once again didn't know much about business because she wasn't allowed to be in the room where business was taught right so we really need to we really need to support each other and like teaching each other and letting people in the room to learn these things so that everyone can have equal play and um I would say yeah their relationship is quite tragic it's it's really sad and I think Mildred Mildred gets the brunt of it but um she always stuck to who she was you know she was she was always powerful and she was always kind and I think that she wasn't going to even let Billy

[00:07:27] take her down definitely you mentioned Camille or she plays uh June you guys have like the final match in you know the movie that was like it was raw it was symbolic like uh how did you guys come together to make that feel so real that match I mean Ash and um our DP Andy you know really were a huge part in that storytelling process they are for the whole film obviously but there's just something so magical

[00:07:52] about that end match you know um Camille is a pro everything that you know is that looks real and professional on camera is because of her she's guiding me through the whole thing um she gave me a real chop which I highly recommend if you've never had one before definitely don't get one it is exhilarating it is exciting it has changed my life um and then you know the background actors in Louisville were with us you know all day every day and we were shooting nights for this so three

[00:08:21] nights in a row long hours and never not once were they out of energy they really feed that entire scene and it changes the whole shooting style of everything like that when people are really giving it their all so we are we are in total gratitude to them what are you hoping the audience gets out of this film when they tune in to watch because you're like you know wrestling fans they're gonna

[00:08:42] tune in they're gonna go watch this yeah um I you know I I hope you get I hope you get inspired to inspire like I hope that you go and chase the dream that you have the dream that's impossible and I hope that you also um see the strength and lifting each other up that when you see that

[00:09:06] that you are been taught to divide from somebody else you know hate is a learned thing um and when we are divided we're only weaker and I think that when we try to understand somebody else even if they're not quite there yet to understand you just giving the offer that you're trying to understand them will only will only inform and affect your future and the people around you and I think that that is something that you can take away from this film is really lifting each other up is is what makes us stronger

[00:09:33] and um yeah makes us better I was told to ask you did you keep anything from set especially for a movie like this I have a couple of her clothes yeah okay um there's a beautiful pink dress in the film that I have I don't think anybody knows that um I mean and I kept I mean I kept her hair for a while too I had I had

[00:09:57] kept one shoulder injury but but it's a memory of her and I appreciate what's the one thing that you took away from this like uh that you're you're gonna remember for the rest of your life I mean I'm gonna remember her I think she's I think I was I was meant to meet her you know and I'm so grateful that I'm in a position in life where I can share on like more of a a larger scale because I I do think that

[00:10:23] she is meant to I think her story will hit with more people than than just me like I'm glad it's not just me reading her story and learning about it I think that I think her story deserves to be known I I really do um and because she's affected my life so deeply I I hope other people can feel that effect as well to be inspired to help lift each other up to um to really just walk through life

[00:10:49] with empathy and and passion you know I think that that's that's huge and every time I have self-doubt you know she's the one that comes into my head and is like you're gonna keep going get back up let's go is this gonna be the last time we see you in a ring or do you maybe down the road you want to try to do something like this again I'm getting back in the ring do you know how addictive wrestling is it's like now it's a part of my spine I'm like you know give it a little bit of time but I'm getting

[00:11:14] the I'm getting the itch there you go Emily I want to thank you for giving from us today uh good luck with the film like I said it's doing well and hopefully we keep hearing more and more about it I'm so excited thanks for chatting it's so nice to finally get to chat with you you too thank you