Zac Efron revealed his most 'uncomfortable' film role as he detailed extreme physical transformation
Zac Efron gained 15lbs of muscle to play wrestler Kevin Von Erich in The Iron Claw, nameing it as one of his most 'uncomfortable' roles.
Efron, who celebrates his birthday today, spoke to Metro about the role, which he said left him more uncomfortable than playing serial killer Ted Bundy in the Netflix film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile in 2019.
He said one of the jarring moments in the filming of The Iron Claw he had not expected came between takes, when he had to stand around in his underwear with a crowd around him and nothing happening.
“I’ve never experienced that one before,” he said. He found himself wondering what to do with his hands, though he added that ‘you get used to that too’.
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What is The Iron Claw about?
Efron trained alongside Harris Dickinson, The Bear star Jeremy Allen White and Stanley Simons, who play his on-screen brothers David, Kerry and Mike.
The film follows the Von Erichs, the WWE Hall of Fame wrestling family who became linked with a so-called ‘curse’ because of the tragedy they faced.
Efron plays eldest son Kevin, while Holt McCallany plays their father, Fritz, a former world-champion wrestler and creator of the ‘Iron Claw’ hold who pushes his sons to their limits.
The family wrestled in Fritz’s World Class Championship Wrestling territory, a precursor to today’s WWE.
How did Zac Efron prepare for The Iron Claw?
Efron’s physique drew wide attention after leaked set pictures from the film’s October 2022 shoot spread online.
The preparation involved Olympic lifting, bodybuilding and wrestling training, and Efron worked out multiple times a day to add the 15lbs of muscle.
Efron got to break that discipline on screen.
With a week of filming left and most of the wrestling done, writer-director Sean Durkin put a bunch of cheeseburgers in a truck, and Efron ate three or four in one take while the characters drove around in silence.
He called it ‘pretty awesome’.
Efron said the soreness, known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), can become debilitating and hard to move through, and that ‘you just feel old’.
In the ring, though, he said adrenaline takes over and the pain is dissociated from the mind until later that night.
Durkin said he did not feel guilty about what his cast put themselves through, because he respected their work and left each of them to decide how to get into shape. He set no target size.
A big wrestling fan himself, Durkin recreated famous matches ‘in great detail’ and worked with trainer Chavo Guerrero Jr. to refine them, knowing wrestling fans would reject the film if it was not delivered at the highest quality.
Topics: Zac Efron, Wrestling, Hollywood, Entertainment
Thomas Bamford