As a motivational speaker, Anthony Robles has been telling the story for over a decade. But now, finally, his story has made it to Hollywood, thanks to Unstoppable, the new Amazon sports biopic that opened in theaters in December and began streaming on Amazon Prime today.
Emmy-winning actor Jharrel Jerome (known for playing the lead in the Ava Duvernay miniseries When They See Us) stars as Robles, a young college wrestler born with only one leg, while Jennifer Lopez stars as Robles supportive mom, Judy Robles.
The film was adapted from Robles’s 2012 memoir of the same name. Lopez’s ex-husband, Ben Affleck, produced the film via Artists Equity, and Affleck’s longtime film editor, William Goldenberg, was brought in to direct. But just because a movie is based on a non-fiction book doesn’t mean this isn’t Hollywood. They love to take liberties! Read on for a breakdown of the Unstoppable true story, including how accurate the movie is to the real story of Anthony Robles.
Unstoppable is based on the true story of Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg and nevertheless went on to become an NCAA Division I wrestling champion for Arizona State in 2011. The Unstoppable film—which was written by Eric Champnella, Alex Harris, and John Hindman—was adapted from Robles’s book of the same name, which he wrote with sports journalist Austin Murphy and published in 2012.
Like most Hollywood movies that are based on a true story, Unstoppable took some liberties with the truth in order to tell a more compelling, efficient, and coherent story. Mainly, the events of Robles’ life were condensed and re-arranged so it could fit into a two-hour movie. At least one character in the movie, Rich (played by Bobby Canavale), has a different name than their real life counterpart. That said, Robles’ real stepdad, Ron Robles, really was abusive toward Robles and his mother, and did abandon their family for another woman, according to a 2011 profile of Robles in Deadspin.
According to the real Robles, who spoke to Decider in a recent interview promoting the movie, this movie was, for the most part, pretty much accurate to his real life.
“The really special thing about this film is that they’ve really got so many things correct,” Robles said. “From the way my siblings acted—their attitudes, their sense of humor; to my coaches and the way they acted, to the way they are on the mat—all of those little things. The relationship with my mom, that inspiration, that strength—everything was captured. Those big, those huge moments in my life, it’s really neat to see on the screen now. But I believe that with this film, I couldn’t ask for more authentic, than what they did.”
The movie was so true to Robles’s story, in fact, that he was even called on to do some on-screen wrestling for parts of the mat scenes in the movie.
” It was an amazing experience for me, but it was definitely different,” Robles told Decider. “Just wrestling as a competitor, as an athlete, I’m going out there and trying to dominate the situation. I’m trying to force something on somebody else. But what we were able to develop with this film, with the choreography—we called it a violent dance. We were working together, but we were bringing that same 100 percent intensity that I would on a wrestling mat as if I was competing.”
One of the film’s screenwriters, Alex Harris, traveled to the NCAA championships at Madison Square Garden, where he witnessed the real Robles work as a commentator. “The access I had to the actual wrestling and, as importantly, the peek behind the curtain to learn how these athletes and their families prepare was crucial in finding authenticity in the script,” Harris said in an interview for the Unstoppable press notes. “I wanted to make sure that when wrestlers saw the film they felt like those sequences accurately captured the intensity and technical brilliance of an exciting match. From there, I aimed to make sure the Robles family’s challenging journey ebbed and flowed in a way that was always intertwined with Anthony’s wrestling career.”
And one of the producers of the film, Gary Lewis, has also been Robles’ manager for the last 14 years. In that same interview for the Unstoppable press notes, Lewis said, “I knew Anthony’s story would make a great film, because there was nothing needed to embellish it.”