Zac Efron experiences quite the transformation in The Iron Claw, putting on pounds of muscle to become professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich; he also dons a shaggy wig for the role and constantly wears small wrestling shorts in the ring.
“In the best way possible, I did not look anything like me. It was jarring at first, but we kind of put it together piece by piece,” Efron told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday.
“Individually, the wig by itself looks kind of ridiculous; by themselves, the clothes look pretty crazy. When you put them all together in the sets that our team built and get out there in the ring under those lights, it looks like the Von Erichs, man, and that’s was our goal. I think it added a lot to it.”
The film follows the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the highly competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Kevin is the last surviving brother — and was in attendance at the event — and Efron admitted he was nervous for his real-life counterpart to watch the film for the first time.
“Over the course of filming this movie, that was pretty much all I could think about. It’s something that you try and kind of push back a little bit, you’re trying to just do the work and get it done, but it’s always in the back of your mind, ‘What’s Kevin really going to think of this?’” the star said. “To meet him, to spend time with him, to have him be out here with us on the carpet, it feels incredibly gratifying, more so than anything I’ve ever done in my entire life. I’m so proud, and I’m just honored that he’s a part of all of this. It’s all because of him.”
Jeremy Allen White, who plays Von Erich’s brother, Kerry, also acknowledged nervousness over Kevin’s reaction, noting that writer-director Sean Durkin — a longtime wrestling fan — “made a choice to do this movie separate from them” and “we’re kind of doing guesswork” when it comes to conversations behinds closed doors.
“I was really nervous, I just wanted it to ring true. I wanted love to come through between the brothers, I think that was important to Kevin,” White said. “After Kevin saw it, he seemed really pleased and he’s here tonight and I think that speaks volumes. I love the guy.”
White added that the bond between the four actors — with Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons playing the other two Von Erich brothers — and especially with Efron was “so easy” as “we were bonded, sort of like trauma-bonded, by stepping into this world in which we really knew nothing about and trying all to learn together.” He added that Efron has been “a great champion of his cast and a big cheerleader” throughout the whole process.
For his part, Durkin said he “wanted to tackle the sort of trappings of masculinity and the very toxic ideas about toughness and being a man and what they are and how to break those.” And it’s been a long time coming, going back to when the director watched the Von Erichs wrestle when he was a kid: “The highs and lows of their story inspired me and haunted me and all of that. It just stayed with me for most of my life; I’ve been thinking about this since I was nine years old.”
The Iron Claw hits theaters on Dec. 22.
