Zac Efron Left It “All On The Field” With ‘The Iron Claw’ & Was Transformed In The Process: “It’s Rekindled A Fire In Me” – The Deadline Interview
08.01.2024 - 20:05
/ deadline.com
For Zac Efron, A24‘s The Iron Claw was the most challenging project in a career of more than two decades, but “in the best ways possible.”
In the film from writer-director Sean Durkin, he chronicles the real-life rise to greatness, and journey through gobsmacking tragedy, of Kevin Von Erich, the eldest son in a family of wrestlers, which has made a huge impact on the sport from the 1960s to the present day. Or at least, the eldest still alive as this particular story begins.
Following the drowning of firstborn Jack Jr. at the age of six, Kevin would step up as the gentle and loving leader of his siblings, working alongside brothers Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons) to try to fulfill the impossible athletic expectations of their old-school, emotionally remote wrestler father, Fritz (Holt McCallany). Then, supposedly as the result of the “Von Erich curse” long discussed as hovering over his family, he’s forced to watch as his siblings abruptly die off, one after the other, until he’s a brother no longer.
Efron has drawn his best reviews yet for his Iron Claw turn, which saw him pack on another well-placed 15 pounds of muscle to emulate the wrestler’s physique, at the same time presenting a visceral portrayal of Kevin’s descent into turmoil, as grief threatens to consume his entire life. In the only interview he’s granted since the pic opened, the actor discusses the “immense courage” of Kevin Von Erich, why this film with which he left it “all on the field” is the one he’s “always wanted to make,” and the kinds of projects he’ll look to take on, after rekindling a fire within.
DEADLINE: How have you felt, seeing the response to your work in The Iron Claw, and to the film in