Emily Bett Rickards Knows Exactly What to Fight For

Emily Bett Rickards doesn’t do things halfway. The 33-year-old actor, best known for playing computer expert-hacker Felicity Smoak in The CW’s Arrow-verse franchise, is both highly inquisitive and deeply committed to her craft. So when Rickards received an email from her agent about the role of wrestler Mildred Burke in the film Queen of the Ring, she dove deep into researching the icon’s life—long before she ever had the job. 

“Who is this woman? Where is she from? Why don't I know her story?” Rickards recalls thinking of her on-screen alter-ego, who rose to prominence in the 1930s, winning the Women's World Championship in 1937, when women’s wrestling was banned in many states. Like so many pioneers before her, Burke affected change at a time when women’s accomplishments went largely unheralded, and with the passage of time, those achievements have only receded further into history.

Rickards wants to change all of that—and introduce Burke to a whole new generation of fans—with Queen of the Ring (now in theaters), written and directed by Ash Avildsen and based on the book The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeff Leen.

“The world should know about Mildred,” Rickards says. “She became a trailblazer for not only women in the sport, but women everywhere. As a woman of this century, I get to benefit from that, and hopefully continue carrying the torch.”  

Becoming Mildred Burke

Raised in Vancouver, Canada by a physician father and psychologist mother, Rickards’ upbringing couldn’t have been more different from Burke’s. Born Mildred Bliss in 1915 in Coffeyville, Kansas, Burke dropped out of school at the age of 15 and took a job as a waitress to make ends meet. Married and pregnant by her late teens, Burke attended a wrestling match with her first husband, where a new dream for her life took hold: She wanted to become a professional wrestler. After much persuading on Burke’s part, a local wrestler-turned-promoter named Billy Wolfe agreed to train her. The two later married and paved the way for many women wrestlers’ careers, before divorcing in 1953.

Though Rickards is no stranger to athletics—she was a gymnast as a kid, became a yoga instructor in her late teens, and enjoys running and kickboxing as an adult—embodying a wrestler of Burke’s build took a different sort of training. “I wasn't unfamiliar with weights,” Rickards says, “but I wasn't familiar with how to build this body.”  

Rickards enlisted the help of two pros to tag-team her training program: Tom Taylor, whom she’d worked with on Arrow; and J. Diego Botezelli, PhD, who also handled her nutrition plan. Rickards’ training began three months before filming. She lifted heavy weights six days a week—alternating body parts each day—with her program progressing over time as she built muscle. Her mostly pescatarian diet was revamped to incorporate less fat and more protein—at least 150 grams per day. “I ate about 250 chickens, conservatively, over this process,” Rickards says with a hint of amusement. 

By the time she left Vancouver to film Queen of the Ring, her transformation was evident to anyone with eyeballs. 

“I went to dinner with my in-laws. It was summer, and I was wearing a tank top. I sat down beside my partner's father, and he just looked at me and went, ‘Holy—your arms!’”

"[Mildred Burke] was a guiding light for me—equality is important and always worth fighting for."

Rickards’ metamorphosis into the formidable wrestler wasn’t just surface level. She spent time trying to inhabit Mildred’s mindset—as an athlete, a single mother, and a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of Wolfe. 

“We wanted to make sure we were telling the truth of what she survived, what she was up against,” Rickards says. “She wasn't just up against somebody telling her no. She was up against abuse and she was up against societal limits.”

Here is where much of Rickards’ early research came to bear. “I devoured [Leen’s book] and then kept it at my bedside with notes all over it,” Rickards says. “It became my honorary text.” 

Also at Rickards’ disposal: dozens of vintage photographs of Burke. After all, Burke was a consummate showwoman—a charismatic force who never shied away from the glare of a stadium spotlight or camera flashbulb. “For that era, anyway, it was very rare to have that many photos,” Rickards says. “A photo does really speak a gazillion words. There's only so much you can read about someone, but when you look into someone's eyes, there's something more.” 

What did Rickards see when she looked into Burke’s eyes? “Infinite power.” 

Stepping Into the Ring

In order to portray Burke convincingly on screen, Rickards didn’t need to just look and act like the wrestler; she needed to move like the wrestler. That meant learning the various holds and takedowns a grappler would need to face an opponent. Rickards trained for a slew of moves, her favorite among them being the slip slam (dodging an opponent and then forcefully throwing them down), the suplex (lifting an opponent and slamming them onto their back), and the Flair chop, named after pro-wrestler Ric Flair. 

“You get slapped across the chest,” Rickards explains of the move. “It is unbelievable. I think anybody should get it done at least once in their life.”

Several pro-wrestlers appear in the film, including Toni Rossall a.k.a. Toni Storm (who plays wrestler Clara Mortensen in the film), Britt Baker (as Debbie Nichols) and Kailey Farmer a.k.a. Kamille (as June Byers)—the latter gives Rickards the infamous slap.

“It's definitely on camera—the first time I got slapped across the chest,” Rickards says. “Kailey was nice enough to give it to me legit.” Getting the chop actually became something of a rite of passage on set, with the director and stunt coordinator, among others, lining up to take a hit. 

Rickards’ original plan was to handle as many of the film’s falls (known as “bumps” in the industry) on her own, but a pre-shoot injury changed her mind. “I took a bump pretty bad in rehearsal, and I was like, ‘Okay, Emily, you're gonna need to sacrifice wanting to do all of it for getting at the truth of the story.’ My dedication is to getting Mildred’s heart across.” Rickards left the majority of her on-screen bumps in the capable hands of stunt woman Kelly Phelan. “She is unbelievable to watch on screen,” Rickards enthuses. “She makes me look amazing.”

A Lasting Legacy

After three months of filming in Louisville, Kentucky, Rickards says her body was simply… done. While she typically gives herself time for an emotional “come down” period after a role, this was the first time she required a physical come down period, as well.

“The energy filming a movie is very all-consuming, in a great way,” Rickards says. “It's this beautiful creation that you build with a bunch of people. If that character is also someone like Mildred, who's far enough from me where it was this transformation, there's a real necessity to give myself that come down.”

“The world should know about Mildred. She became a trailblazer for not only women in the sport, but women everywhere. As a woman of this century, I get to benefit from that, and hopefully continue carrying the torch.”

Once the cameras stopped rolling, Rickards says she indulged in one margarita (“I’m not a big drinker”), gave the weights a rest, and returned to the types of movement she loves, like running and hiking. Though Rickards’ body now feels like her own once again, she says her soul has been indelibly marked by the experience of playing Burke. “There's a part of me that really feels like Mildred and I were supposed to meet,” Rickards says. “She's changed my life so, and that's because I have such a deep connection to her now. She was a guiding light for me—equality is important and always worth fighting for.”

Queen of the Ring highlights about 20 years of Burke’s life, but she continued to fight for equality decades after. Successfully defending her title as Women's World Champion until 1956 when she retired, Burke founded the World Wide Women's Wrestling Association, went on to operate a wrestling school, and helped spread women’s wrestling to numerous countries, including Japan, Cuba, and Mexico. Following her death in 1989 from a stroke at the age of 73, Burke was posthumously admitted to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016 as a “legacy” member. 

Burke endures in smaller, more poignant ways, too. In a full-circle moment for Rickards, she recently met several of Burke’s granddaughters, including one who carries her grandmother’s lessons close to her heart. “We were on a carpet, and she just hit this pose,” Rickard recalls. “I was like, ‘That's amazing!’ And she goes, ‘My grandmother taught me that.’ I thought I was going to cry.” 

As Rickards reflects on the kinds of projects she wants to take following Queen of the Ring, she acknowledges that Burke and her story will have an impact. “I want to do more deep character work,” Rickards says. “I’ll take Mildred with me—she’s definitely been pivotal. I’m looking forward to the next character that can help me connect with the world.” And no doubt inspire her to dive in, whole-heartedly and unreservedly.