Emily Bett Rickards learned to wrestle for Mildred Burke biopic

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- On The CW's Arrow, Emily Bett Rickards played a superhero's computer expert. In her new film, Queen of the Ring , premiering Saturday at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Rickards trained physically to portray real-life wrestler Mildred Burke.

"I was like, 'Oh, I feel like I can do that. I just haven't,'" Rickards told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "I've always been super active and I pick up things pretty fast."

Burke wrestled from 1937 to 1956 and launched her own World Women's Wrestling Association after leaving the National Wrestling Alliance. Rickards portrays Burke, covering her training through the wrestling organization's creation.

"Mildred was a pioneer in this arena," Rickards said. "She really brought women to wrestling."

Rickards began to train three months before filming began and continued working at it during the 10-week production. Dr. Diego Botezelli, who specializes in weight loss and muscle building, created her workout and diet, which included "lots of protein, so much protein."

She also had to give up cardiovascular exercises like kickboxing and running to focus entirely on muscle building.

"It was heavy weights, slow on the way down, faster on the way up," she said. "There was a period of time where I remember putting my hands on my hips and I just felt solid, like there was just more of me."

Rickards became strong enough to lift her co-stars who played Mildred's opponents. While learning wrestling techniques, Rickards said she was impressed by the attention paid to the wrestler taking the bumps, terminology for falling on the mat.

"Wrestling is a lot about safety," Rickards said. "To take the bump, you spread out."

She was a quick study on taking bumps, too, thanks to childhood gymnastics practice, in which she learned how to protect herself when falling.

"It put me back into this playful mode of wanting to be on the mat and do something physical with another person," she said.

Stunt double Kelly Phelan performed many of Burke's falls in the film, but Rickards wanted to perform as much of the on-screen wrestling as she could.

Deborah Ann Woll, Francesca Eastwood, Marie Avgeropoulous, Kelli Berglund and Damaris Lewis also play real-life wrestlers. AEW's Kailey Farmer and WWE's Toni Rossall portray two of Burke's real-life opponents.

Though they are antagonists on screen, Rickards said Farmer helped coach her in wrestling.

"If you see us wrestling on-screen, she's leading," Rickards said. "She brought me into that trust as someone who is an actor, not a wrestler but was doing my darndest."

Rickards said her favorite part of wrestling was the showmanship. Burke and her husband, NWA promoter Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas), determined the outcomes of matches, but it was up to the performers to tell the story.

"This ability to weave story and have it be structured but improvised -- there's an essence there that is so beautiful," Rickards said.

Even her less physical performances draw on the same ideals, she said, relating the emotional connection between any actors to the physical one shared by wrestlers.

"I'd say acting actually is all contact," Rickards said. "Maybe it's not punching each other all the time, but it is really about affecting the other person."

Queen of the Ring wrapped filming in July 2023, and Rickards said she still incorporates some aspects of the resistance training and nutrition she learned for the role. She said she did not wish to keep up the muscle mass she gained to portray Burke.

"I love being that strong," Rickards said. "It's just not me. It's her."

Rickards said it still took a year to return to a shape with which she was comfortable, adding that now "when I hold my sides, I don't feel like a tree trunk."