What does ‘cretin’ mean? Ruby Rose’s fiery message to Sydney Sweeney after Christy flop ignites backlash

Actress Ruby Rose recently came into the spotlight after she publicly criticized Sydney Sweeney and her performance in her new biopic, Christy, which was released on November 7, 2025.

The biopic is based on the American female boxer Christy Martin, who hailed from a small town in West Virginia, and felt that it was impossible for her to become a professional sportswoman; however, she defied all odds and won several accolades.

In the movie, Sweeney's character was also filled with internalized homophobia, but later came to realize that she was gay and fell under the category of a queer person.

Ruby Rose took to her social media on November 12, 2025, and wrote that she had initially gotten the chance to play Christy as the titular character and had read the script as well, which had changed her life.

She went on to write about how it was a shame to cast Sweeney as a gay character since she does not identify as gay, and about how queer people are rarely ever considered to play queer roles in movies and shows.

She also called Sydney a cretin, which refers to a derogatory slang meaning an offensive or unpleasant person. 

Details explored on Ruby Rose’s message to Sydney Sweeney regarding her playing the titular character in the movie Christy 

Director David Michǒd’s biopic movie Christy was released recently on November 7, 2025, in over 2000+ theaters worldwide, commercially became a flop.

The opening Friday sales amassed only $600,000, which is abnormally low for a film of this stature, and the entire opening weekend only made $1.3 million.

According to Box Office Mojo, the film has been placed among the list of 12 worst openings for movies.

On November 12, 2025, actress Ruby Rose took to her Instagram Threads account and spoke out about how she felt that a great injustice had been done to the brilliant script of the film by not casting a queer actor to play the role of a queer person on screen. She said,

“The original Christy Martin script was incredible. Life changing. I was attached to play Cherry. Everyone had experience with the core material. Most of us were actually gay. It’s part of why I stayed in acting.”

Ruby Rose, who openly identifies as a gay woman, said that the script had initially come to her for consideration, but Sydney Sweeney was later finalized to play the titular character.

She said that Sydney’s personal political affiliations versus her playing a lesbian boxer on screen are highly hypocritical.

Rose went on to call Sweeney a cretin, which is the derogatory slang word for an offensive, unoriginal, and unpleasant person. She said,

“For her PR to talk about it flopping and saying SS did it for the 'people.' None of 'the people' want to see someone who hates them, parading around pretending to be us. You’re a cretin and you ruined the film. Period. Christy deserved better.”

On Monday, November 10, 2025, Sydney took to her Instagram account and wrote about how the disappointing sales of the movie did not dishearten her since she was more focused on the art that the cast, crew, and production had created.

She further went on to state that if the movie ended up giving courage to even one woman, they had done an incredible job. She wrote,

“This film stands for survival, courage, and hope. Through our campaigns, we’ve helped raise awareness for so many affected by domestic violence. We all signed on to this film with the belief that Christy’s story could save lives.”

Stay tuned for more updates.