A once renowned boxer takes a redemptive journey through his past and present in Director Jack Huston’s drama, Day of the Fight.

Huston’s film shows a day in the life of Mikey “Irish Mike” Flanigan, a champion boxer getting ready for his first fight since leaving prison. As he prepares for the most important fight of his life, he reconnects with the people he was closest to and tries to make things right.

On November 16, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Huston discussed the making of Day of the Fight during a Q&A moderated by Director Henry Alex Rubin (Semper Fi). He also spoke about the film during a conversation moderated by Director Gus Van Sant (Don’t Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot) following the Los Angeles screening on November 24.

During the New York conversation, Huston spoke about something he learned from his grandfather, the legendary Director John Huston.

“My grandfather always stood by making a film is 90 percent casting. I love when you find a perfect actor you give it to them. There’s no ownership. I have ownership over the story, but I don’t have ownership over the role anymore. You go and do what you do beautifully, I don’t want to get in the way of that. I think it’s very important to understand that you’re giving an actor a part and the beauty is to watch what they do with it like I would say about any role in making a film. Choose the greatest person you can find for each individual role because you want them to elevate. You don’t want to control it, you’re controlling the entire picture and that was the beauty of this, the collaboration of all these incredible people. That you’re in harmony and you’re trying to make something that you have an idea what that looks like and it’s coming together. That collaboration is probably one of the most beautiful parts of making a picture and that’s probably why certain things happen. We made this in 20 days. We had a day and a half to shoot the entire fight. The only reason that worked is because of the trust we had between the actors and the people we worked with.”

Day of the Fight is Huston’s directorial debut. He became a DGA member in 2022.