It won’t be in theaters until December, but Unstoppable—based on the real-life experience of wrestling champion Anthony Robles, who was born without his right leg—already looks like a hit. Co-starring Hollywood icon Jennifer Lopez and Emmy-winning actor Jharrel Jerome, the film got a two-minute standing ovation last weekend after premiering at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. Critics were equally appreciative, calling the movie “compelling,” “authentic,” and “a crowd-pleaser you can believe in.”
In addition to Lopez and Jerome, the project attracted high-end talents such as actor Bobby Cannavale, a two-time Emmy winner (and two-time Tony nominee); Oscar-winner William Goldenberg, making his directorial debut; and Ben Affleck, whose production company Artists Equity shepherded the film from concept to completion. Amazon MGM Studios signed on as distributor, with a limited theatrical release scheduled for December 2024.
While you’re waiting for your chance to see the movie, we recommend you read the 2012 autobiography on which it’s based. Written by Robles with Austin Murphy, Unstoppable: From Underdog to Undefeated reveals how Robles overcame a difficult upbringing, a physical disability, and haters of various kinds to become an NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion at Arizona State University. The book is on back order due to the spike in demand caused by the movie’s buzz. We went ahead and purchased an e-book copy to avoid the wait.
Even by Hollywood standards, 10 years is a pretty long gestation period for a project like this. What took so long? We reached out to Robles to find out, and the answer might surprise you. Here’s the inside scoop on how the story made it to the big screen, along with some other backstory about the production.
The Q+A below is lightly edited for clarity. Amplitude will be featuring a more extensive conversation with Robles in our November/December print edition, so keep eyes open for that.
The book came out in 2012. We’re now in 2024. Fill in the blanks for me. What’s the saga between the release of your book and the release of this film?
It’s been a long process and an amazing journey. After I won my national championship at Arizona State, my senior year, I decided that I was officially done with competing in wrestling, and I wanted to focus on my career as a motivational speaker. While I was really pursuing that, the opportunity to write the book came up. And there were some opportunities at that time from some production companies who were interested in telling my story on the big screen. I really wanted to take my time with those decisions, because they’re big decisions. I didn’t want to rush into anything. And I had some great representation, and the advice they gave me was, “You can sign off, but you will have little control over the story and how it’s told.” It was very important to me that we hold on to the integrity of the story and the message of the story. It wanted to make sure it would be told in a way that I would be proud of it, and my family would be proud of it.
So the route we went was to raise some funds to come up with the first draft of the script, and then we started sharing that. We were close to getting it into production, but then Covid hit. And then a couple of years after that, in comes Ben Affleck’s company, Artist Equity.
And how did they find you?
It was just basically a word-of-mouth thing. [Affleck] was working on AIR with Billy Goldenberg, and they were talking about their next projects and what they’re passionate about, and Billy mentioned Unstoppable. He read the script and fell in love with it.
Do you know how the script got passed to Billy Goldenberg?
It came from our original team: my manager/agent Gary Lewis, Andy Frazier, and David Crockett. Andy and David were already in the film business, and one of them knew Billy or had worked with him in the past. So they handed him the script. He was on board to be the director from early on. Then there were some delays, and there were times where I wondered if this would ever actually become a reality. It’s still crazy to me that it is a reality. But the message was the most important thing to me, and I’m glad we held on as long as we did, because I’m super proud of what’s about to be shared with the world.
What concerns did you have about ways your story might be told where you wouldn’t feel proud? Were there particular elements that you thought might be distorted?
My story is more than just a wrestling story. It’s more than just me competing on a wrestling mat. I wrestled through my life as well. I was born to a mom who was a single parent, 16 years old when she had me. I was raised in a household where there was a lot of love with my siblings and my mom, but I also had a stepfather who wasn’t the best role model. A lot of challenges and negativity came from that side of things, but that is part of what I wrestled through in my life.
But some of those things are very sensitive. I wanted to make sure that my story was in the right hands. I didn’t want them to twist my mom’s story to where she came across as anything other than what she was for me, which was: My mom was my rock. She was my hero. She believed in me when no one else did, even at a young age. I’m 36 years old now, and I’m a fairly new parent, and I can’t imagine being how young she was and having the mentality she was able to raise me with, and being able to teach the things she taught me. I didn’t want that to get lost in the story. I didn’t want to lose how important she was.
And I didn’t want the spotlight to be on the negativity of my stepfather. I didn’t want to be sitting there watching a story that’s unrecognizable to me, something that’s just a Hollywood story. That’s what made me nervous, and why I chose to take the time and do it the way we did.
Were there any movies about sports, about disability, underdog stories, that you loved growing up?
Growing up and being a wrestler, I loved Vision Quest. But my all-time favorite movie was Cinderella Man, the boxing film with Russell Crowe. And I guess every athlete out there has got to say Rocky. Those films were inspiring to me, they were motivating to me, and I felt like there was something I could relate to out of all those stories. And that was something very important to me about my story—I wanted it to be told in a way that’s very relatable. I want there to be moments of joy, but also moments where the audience can feel the pain I went through and the frustration I endured. Because the overall goal of this film is for people to walk away being motivated. There are a lot of challenges in the world today that can break people. And I want people to walk away feeling like, whatever they’re wrestling with, they can overcome that. It can be a physical thing. It can be mental. It can be something going on in the world. But I want them to walk away knowing they can fight whatever’s in their path.
What was it like working with Jharrel? Were there particular aspects of how he represented your wrestling mentality, your adaptation to disability, your family relationships, or anything else that you really focused on with him?
The pretty cool thing about Jharrel is that we initially met in 2018 or 2019. I’m not positive, but I know it was before Covid. So we’d known each other for a little while before we worked on the movie. That relationship really grew organically. It wasn’t just some actor getting to know me for a project and asking me intimate questions. He got to see me in my day-to-day life. He got to see how people looked at me out in public, or how I interact with people out in public. And being the amazing actor and professional that he is, Jharrel was just a sponge.
Just getting to know each other as friends, he was really excited to be able to tell my story, which to me was a very humbling honor. He wanted to do it justice, and I think he was kind of worried about portraying the story in the right way. That was very touching to me, to know that he cared so much about bringing out my message the right way.
What do you hope people will take away from this movie?
One of my trainers used to say all the time, “If you are unchallenged, then you are unchanged.” I think life is the same way. When you get challenged, that’s an opportunity to find that puzzle piece you’re missing and plug it in. It’s not always going to happen right away. You might have to take three or four losses first before it starts making sense. But you have to have faith that sooner or later you’re going to figure it out.
That’s very much like a wrestling match. When you’re facing an opponent that’s kicking your butt, and you’re getting your face smashed into the mat, it’s not like your coach can call a timeout and sub in a teammate. The only one who has power over your situation in that moment is you. You’re the one who has to wrestle that match. I want people to realize that when they’re in that dark moment, they just need to find that little sense of hope and keep fighting.
