The release of the first 'Southpaw' trailer received a lot of criticism from the unwarranted spoiler towards the beginning, more notably the death of Rachel McAdam's character.

Director Antoine Fuqua recently responded to backlash in an interview with EW and states that he felt the same way as the spectators, as it wasn't his choice to cut the trailer in that way.

"I was worried, and I spoke my mind about that," says Fuqua. "But the Weinstein people are great at [marketing], so I just put my trust in that. The audience sometimes, I guess, needs a little bit more context, especially this type of movie where it's more of an emotional ride than people think-because it's really a father/daughter story. So I had to roll with that. But, yeah, I was concerned about it, for sure. I still am."

The director later goes into detail on how the casting of Jake Gyllenhaal for the lead came about. It's reported that the actor wasn't Fuqua's first choice and that he was in deep negotiations with rap artist Eminem to helm the role.

"I sent him to the gym to audition for my trainer, Terry Claybon, and first day, Terry calls me and says, 'Man, I think you picked the wrong dude,'" says Fuqua. "I said, 'No, give him some more time.' So he started working with him, and a few weeks later, he called me up again and said, 'Oh, yeah.' [Jake] started sparring with a few professional fighters we had in the gym with us, and he took some shots. I wanted to see what he would do. And he was in there. That's when I knew he was going to do it."

Fuqua believed in promoting a high sense of realism in this boxing movie and praised Gyllenhaal's commitment to his vision.

"I said, 'Whatever you look like after we get done fighting, is what you look like in this movie," he explained. 'If you got a black eye, you got a black eye.' And that's what we did. That's why I love Jake. He gave me his heart. He trusted me, and I trusted him."

'Southpaw' premieres in theaters July 24.