The action involves mixed martial arts, the story was partly inspired by “Rocky,” and the most familiar name in the cast belongs to Danny Trejo, the tough-guy criminal-turned-actor who has maimed, marauded and disemboweled his way through such popular movies as “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “Con Air” and “Machete.”
But “American Warrior,” which opens in select cities and becomes available on demand on Aug. 29, is to a significant extent a project of female Memphis filmmakers whose artsy and affluent social and family pedigrees seem worlds away from a testosterone-fueled milieu of prison muscles and boxing scars.
One of the movie’s key producers is Cristy Coors Beasley, a product of Hutchison School, Sewanee: The University of the South and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, whose family tree includes women who helped revitalize Overton Square and launch Memphis in May.
Sparring (romantic and otherwise): Vishy Ayyar and Taylor Treadwell in “American Warrior.”
And the movie’s female lead is Taylor Treadwell, a graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Memphis (she also studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Spain’s University of Madrid) whose family has been integral to the establishment of such Southern institutions as the Liberty Bowl and Alcorn State University.
Beasley and Treadwell were crucial collaborators on “American Warrior,” which stars Indian actor Vishy Ayyar as Jai, “an Indian-American immigrant and amateur MMA fighter, fresh out of jail,” in the words of the film’s website.
“During an unexpected encounter in a convenience store our protagonist steps in to stop a robbery, finding himself suddenly, uncomfortably in the media limelight, and hailed as a local hero,” the website synopsis continues.
Dubbed “Jai the Janitor Vigilante” by internet influencers, the man “is thrust into a local MMA tournament… To win, he must look deep within to overcome past transgressions, find personal redemption and move forward.”
Trejo stars as Jai’s no-nonsense trainer, while Treadwell is Melissa, an office administrator who begins to fall in love with Jai while battling her own demons: She’s a recovering alcoholic fighting to retain custody of her young son (Jordy Cass).
Much as Sylvester Stallone launched himself to stardom with his own script about an underdog professional fighter, “Rocky,” the story of “American Warrior” was conceived by Ayyar, who brought his project to Beasley’s production company, Fabled Frames.
Producer Cristy Coors Beasley and actress Taylor Treadwell at the July 23, 2025, preview screening of their film, “American Warrior,” at the Malco Studio on the Square.
“We both really wanted to inspire people,” said Beasley. But a difference between the underdog story of “Rocky” and the one featured in “American Warrior” is that Jai is a newcomer to America.
“When we first started making this, it wasn’t such a relevant subject,” Beasley said. “But now immigration and being a new citizen in America — what does that mean to people? It’s a very important topic.”
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From Memphis to Los Angeles
Directed by Gustavo Martin, “American Warrior” was shot over 20 days in 2023, in Chicago and Beverly Hills. The budget was very modest. “This is not Jake Gyllenhaal in a 50-million-dollar studio movie with his abs,” Beasley said. In other words, “American Warrior,” like its hero, is an underdog. Opening in only a handful of cities (not including Memphis), the movie hopes to find an audience via Prime Video, Apple, Fandango and other streaming services, where its competition will include highly touted new releases with Eddie Murphy, Wednesday Addams, a chest-bursting alien, and other, more recognizable attractions.
Both now longtime residents of Los Angeles, Treadwell and Beasley have known each other for years, but never really collaborated before “American Warrior.” Beasley — whose mother, also named Cristy Coors Beasley, was a dedicated arts advocate who was active with Opera Memphis, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the “Wonders” exhibitions, and other projects — was a Nashville-based lawyer until she decided to pursue her dream of filmmaking. She found success as a producer of “lonelygirl15,” the thriller web series that 20 years ago was a sensation, with Time magazine naming it among “the 50 best YouTube videos of all time.”
Meanwhile, Treadwell decided “OK, maybe I am an actress” after she beat “hundreds of girls” for the lead role in a stage production of “Barefoot in the Park” at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she was a student for a while. By that time, the acting bug already had been her lifelong companion: As a child, she appeared onstage in plays in Memphis, Germantown and Collierville,
Since relocating to L.A., Treadwell has earned roles alongside prestigious co-stars in numerous popular movies and shows, including “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Knight and Day,” “Big Little Lies” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” She’s busy, but “I am not a recognizable person,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of small parts in a lot of big projects.” That’s one reason “American Warrior” appealed to her.
Memphis actress Taylor Treadwell.
“This is the first time where I was not just part of a scene that moves the story forward but a character who was necessary to the story itself,” she said. In fact, Treadwell said she worked to help make her character even more believable than she was in the original script, as an individual and as a helpmate to Jai. “I said, ‘We have to add some scenes that show they are connecting as two people,’ so the audience believes she’s rooting for him, and that she becomes a source of his strength.” Fortunately, Beasley and company agreed.
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Advance screenings and ‘Memphis Easter eggs’
To bring attention to “American Warrior,” Beasley, Treadwell and others with the movie have been on an old-school, boots-on-the-ground promotional tour since June, hosting advance screenings — often in coordination with the local Indian community — in Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego and other cities, with two special screenings set for the film’s opening week in Chicago.
These screenings followed a spate of appearances at international film festivals, from Buenos Aires to Goa, India, where the cast and crew were treated like celebrities.
Vishy Ayyar is a mixed martial arts fighter and Danny Trejo is his trainer in “American Warrior.”
On July 23, Beasley and Treadwell hosted a Memphis screening at the Malco Studio on the Square that was packed with family and friends. That audience may have appreciated what Beasley called the “Memphis Easter eggs” included in the film; these include a photograph of Elvis in Jai’s apartment, and a dress worn by one character that originally belonged to Coors’ grandmother, who bought it at the famous Helen of Memphis dress shop on Union Avenue.
Of course, it will take more than family and friends to make “American Warrior” a hit.
“We are a needle in a haystack,” admitted Treadwell, alluding to the seemingly infinite array of choices available on the streaming-service landscape. “But I have a feeling that people who are scrolling through the selection, they might say, ‘This looks kind of interesting,’ and once they start watching it, they will not be able to stop.
“I’m really happy with how this turned out,” she added. “I think people are going to love this movie.”
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: ‘American Warrior’: The story behind new movie inspired by ‘Rocky’
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