(Cover) - EN Showbiz - David O. Russell felt it was important to introduce Amy Adams character to The Fighter.

The 52-year-old American directors latest success has been the biographical drama examining the early years of boxer Irish Micky Ward, and the relationship he had with his brother who helped train him. The movie has been nominated in the best motion picture category at the upcoming Academy Awards.

The film stars Hollywood hunks Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, with the former being a producer in the movie. Mark had been developing the film for several years before David came on board, and the director feels he brought a personal touch to the movie notably in the form of Amys character Charlene Fleming Mickys love interest.

When I came in, Mark said, let's let David tell the story how he sees it, so as a producer he wanted me to do that, he explained.

So that you have this intense emotional and rapid-fire interaction with all of the characters, including the sisters, who were not featured in earlier versions, and including the Amy Adams character, which was not really featured in the earlier version the romance, which was not prominent in earlier drafts. All of those things were very important to me.

David also felt Melissa Leos character Alice Ward the mother of Micky - was another fundamental character. He felt it was important for the movie to have a feminine element.

Alice as a centrepiece to me was something that I wanted to focus on, and women in particular, and the rhythm of how we saw the story, and the humour in these people and the charm that's in their hearts was not part of the story, he told Moviefone. (C) Cover Media