How 'Iron Claw' star Zac Efron learned pro wrestling 'is not as easy as it looks on TV'

Zac Efron's first day in a pro wrestling ring went like that of many rookies: He had his mettle tested by “running the ropes,” going from side to side and bouncing off the ring ropes in punishing fashion.

The star of the new true-life wrestling drama “The Iron Claw” (in theaters Friday) calls the experience “wildly uncomfortable” as he learned the basics of being a real-deal grappler.

“I don't know how these guys do it, man,” says Efron, 36. “You think you're getting the hang of it, and you speed up a few times and your confidence gets built up. Then you slam into one of those things just an inch too high and your rib is like gone. You can't breathe for a couple days.

“It’s shocking that first time you do it. You're like, this is not as easy as it looks on TV.”

Written and directed by Sean Durkin, “Iron Claw” delves into the history of the Von Erich wrestling family, chronicling the 1980s rise of Texas siblings Kevin (Efron), David (Harris Dickinson) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) but also the tragedies that result from trying to live up to the crushing expectations of patriarch Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany). 

“They reached this level of rock stars or superheroes, and really for not a very long period of time,” White, 32, says. “That was interesting to explore, the relationships (between) those brothers and the amount of competition and rivalry inherent in that sport.”

In the movie, Durkin re-creates several wrestling matches from the Von Erichs’ heroic heyday, against the villainous likes of Ric Flair, Harley Race and the Fabulous Freebirds. “It was quite easy for me seeing that some of my original writing was as a 10-year-old boy playing with wrestling toys, building storylines and feuds in my head,” the director says.

To pull those off, his actors needed to be in good physical and ring shape. Packing on muscle wasn’t anybody’s favorite part of the process: “The physical transformation was hard. I'm not naturally athletic like that,” Dickinson says, while White disliked “eating something every two hours.” For Efron, the daily grind of diet and workouts, “just motivating yourself to get up and train and push heavy weights, can get pretty tedious.”

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But Efron likens the actual wrestling training to a “fun camp with your best bros. There's a team element, and you're learning something new. It sparks different parts of your brain.” For the record, Efron was “the biggest cheerleader” for the group, Dickinson, 27, says. “He's so supportive and just wanted us to win the whole time, which is what got us through it.”

Dickinson’s character inherits the Von Erichs’ signature move, the iron claw, though the actor was more of a fan of doing dropkicks. “It scared me because you have to jump up in the air, kick (the opponent) and then land just flat on your stomach from quite a height,” he says. “I remember doing it and being like, ‘Oh. I want to do this again.’ ”

Even Durkin got in on the action: “I had this fantasy that I was going to get in the ring and learn how to wrestle. And then I bounced off the ropes once and I'm like, ‘Ow, that hurts.’ ”

In addition to getting their moves down, “The Iron Claw” actors immersed themselves in the wrestling world and found the community "full of support and love,” White says. “I didn't quite realize how much of wrestling was about making one another look good. You really have to leave your ego at the door.” Wrestlers have appeared at “Iron Claw” premieres, too, including the real Kevin Von Erich, John Cena and All Elite Wrestling champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman, an executive producer on the movie and Efron’s tag team partner in one scene.

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“Talking with Maxwell, it was very easy to get tips and tricks from him and then return the favor,” Efron says. “We had a similar kind of lingo. There's a lot of similarities. I mean, look how many professional wrestlers become actors – I know less that go the other way. Once you have that work ethic of being a professional wrestler, I'm pretty sure the fine-tuning and changing your strategy a little bit can be an easy transition, if you think about it.”

Dickinson says he’d “love” to team up with his “Iron Claw” bros again and work a wrestling match. White would also be up for it, “given a little bit of time to brush up and get my body right.”

While Efron feels they'd need “a couple weeks and a couple sessions just to make sure we got the flexibility, man, we could be in there,” he says. “It'd be fun. I don’t know if it'd be the most electric show.”

White quips: “I don't know if we'd be competitive, but yes, I could physically be there.”