Think You Recognize Ben Foster in Sydney Sweeney’s Christy? Here’s Where You’ve Seen Him Before

Sydney Sweeney has a new boxing biopic out, and Ben Foster shows up swinging as the husband-coach from hell. If you did a double take thinking 'wait, is that Angel from X-Men?', yep — that is Ben Foster, and he is not playing nice this time either.

Ben Foster: why he looks familiar (and why he still scares the daylights out of you)

Foster has been doing nervy, high-voltage work for years. He was Warren Worthington III — Angel — in 'X-Men: The Last Stand,' but most of his career has been about tapping into volatile, damaged guys you don’t forget. In 'Christy,' he is James V. Martin, the abusive trainer-turned-husband of boxing trailblazer Christy Martin, and the role sits squarely in his wheelhouse. Critics and audiences have been calling out his performance as one of the movie’s strongest punches.

• Charlie Prince — '3:10 to Yuma' (2007): wild-eyed enforcer energy, all twitch and menace
• Tanner Howard — 'Hell or High Water' (2016): the reckless brother who keeps lighting the fuse
• Matt 'Axe' Axelson — 'Lone Survivor' (2013): raw, frontline heroism with the emotional shrapnel to match
• Will Montgomery — 'The Messenger' (2009): solemn, bruised Army officer delivering the worst news imaginable
• Lance Armstrong — 'The Program' (2015): win-at-all-costs charm shaded by calculated deceit
• Russell Corwin — 'Six Feet Under' (2003–05): obsessive, self-sabotaging artist mode fully engaged
• Steve McKenna — 'The Mechanic' (2011): slippery protege; trustworthy one minute, not so much the next
• Roy Cady — 'Galveston' (2018): battered hitman clinging to a last shot at redemption

What 'Christy' is actually about

'Christy' (2025) is a biographical sports drama from director David Michod, co-written with Mirrah Foulkes. Sydney Sweeney plays Christy Martin, the 1990s boxing star who broke through as the most famous female fighter in America. The film tracks her rise in the ring, the private battles she could not outrun — her sexuality, addiction, and relentless domestic abuse — and the life-or-death attack she survived at the hands of the man who trained and married her, James V. Martin (Foster).

Alongside Sweeney and Foster, the cast includes Merritt Wever, Katy O'Brian, Ethan Embry, and Chad L. Coleman. The themes are as heavy as they sound: empowerment, survival, the cost of silence, and what resilience looks like when the people closest to you are also the threat.

Does it hit as hard as it should?

This is where the movie gets a little frustrating. Sweeney and Foster clearly did the work — training, transformation, all of it — and they deliver. But the film itself mostly sticks to the beaten path. Reviews (Slate included) have dinged it for leaning on awards-season-friendly storytelling instead of taking bigger swings. Translation: the performances land; the movie around them plays it safe.

That combination has led to a mixed critical response and a sluggish box office start. It does mark another step in Sweeney’s pivot into heavier dramatic territory, though, and whether this is a one-off or a lane she fully claims, we’ll see.

Bottom line

Foster brings his signature intensity to a role that benefits from it, Sweeney anchors the story with grit, and the film checks all the right boxes even if it doesn’t reinvent them. If you’re in for the performances, you’ll get what you paid for.

'Christy' is in U.S. theaters now. What did you think of Ben Foster in it?