Iron Claw: meeting with Zac Efron and his wrestling brothers

Between intensive training and torrents of love, the actors of Sean Durkin’s film tell us how they became the Von Erich brothers, wrestling superstars and tragic heroes.

There are four actors in the photo above but only three in the Zoom chat screen. Harris Dickinson – the blond on the left, the model on Without filter by Ruben Östlund – has a word of apology: he was detained on a shoot. But otherwise, here they are, three of the four Von Erich brothers, in order of appearance in the following interview: Zac Efronthe star of the film, professional, square, in eternal quest for respectability since his debut in High School Musical ; Stanley Simons, unknown to the battalion, who plays the most fragile and “artist” of the brothers; And Jeremy Allen Whitethe most popular US actor of the moment, adored for the series The Bear, his neo-Sean Penn appearance and his mind-blowing cinematography.

FIRST: How did you develop the extraordinary feeling of love and brotherhood that pulses between you in Iron Claw ?

ZAC EFRON: We trained wrestling together every day, several hours a day, three weeks in a row… Try it, you’ll see, it creates bonds!

STANLEY SIMONS: After a while, it’s true, the relationship between us somewhat duplicated that of the Von Erich brothers between them.

JEREMY ALLEN WHITE: We were a little isolated, with preparation and filming taking place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We discovered this world together, little by little. Not just the lives of the Von Erichs, but the world of professional wrestling as a whole. We were coached by an extraordinary wrestler named Chavo Guerrero, we learned to appreciate each other, to help each other… It all happened very naturally, I found these guys easy to like.

ZE: It was essential that there be this alchemy between us because brotherhood is central to the Von Erich story. It was she who allowed them to reach the top of this sport. And it is thanks to her that they were able to cope with the tragedies that hit them.

The rivalry, the performance, the appearance… We can draw a lot of parallels between wrestlers and actors, right?

JAW: Yeah, when I started in the profession, I was crossed by some of the negative feelings that agitate people in these very competitive environments, where appearance plays an essential role: jealousy, this feeling of being rejected, unwanted… What is interesting about the Von Erichs is that they are both in competition with each other and linked by an immense love. How is the balance between the two, between rivalry and fraternity? One of the keys to the film was there.

Warning, the following contains spoilers about the lives of the Von Erich brothers

How did you enter their world?

SS: Sean (Durkin) had amassed a mountain of archives over the years. The Von Erich family has been filmed a lot, their life has been told in detail in the specialized press. One of the most useful things for me was these home movies that Fritz, the father, filmed on their ranch when the brothers were little. We see in these videos how they behaved among themselves, but also all this sunny Texan atmosphere, so beautiful, with the dogs, nature, motorcycle races…

JAW: The key archive, for me, is this video filmed just after Kerry’s motorcycle accident, in which he lost his foot. He speaks to journalists, looks at the camera smiling, explains that he will soon get back into the ring. Which he ended up doing, thanks to a special shoe, but at the cost of incredible pain. He continued because he believed that was what he should do: show no signs of weakness. When we look closely at this video, we perceive his pain, but also his fear of losing such a fundamental part of his identity. This is one of the questions that the film asks: what is there in the lives of these men when suddenly they no longer have to fight, to put their title on the line in the ring?

ZE: The stock image that guided me is a moment where we briefly see Kevin Von Erich’s armor cracking. We recreated this moment in the film, in fact. It’s the recording of a promo video where he has to address an opponent. But Kevin doesn’t really have the skill of a pro wrestler, that’s his Achilles heel. He hesitates, forces his nature… At this precise moment, he is not in the performance, nor in his intimacy, but right between the two, at the same time sincere, disarmed, and trying to play a role. The ideal gap to slip into as an actor.