Before Gabby Douglas even flew home from the 2012 London Olympics, studio executives were clambering for her story. The Washington Post reported that filmmakers Zev Braun and Philip Krupp were struck by her performance and the details they learned about her life. "This is a movie," Braun said to Krupp, showing him Douglas on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. They immediately reached out to contacts at the Lifetime network and cold-called Douglas' agent. Both Douglas and her mother, Natalie Hawkins, were reluctant, but eventually came on board, making it an authorized biopic.
In 2013, Lifetime greenlit the movie, and filming began. Regina King was cast as Hawkins, while Sydney Mikayla and Imani Hakim played Douglas at different times in her life. Douglas and her family spent two weeks on set in Winnipeg, where seeing their lives played out by actors was bizarre for the family. Hawkins recalled, "Every time they said my name I was like, cringing. My kids felt the same, everybody all the way down to Gabrielle, they all felt the same. They were like, 'This is really awkward.'" Douglas concurred, but told USA Gymnastics that she enjoyed learning about how films were made.
The movie premiered in 2014, and according to Hawkins, the family's seen it quite a few times. "Whenever we're at my dad's house, he's like 'Let's watch the movie!'" she said. "He DVRs it and watches it over and over again."
