“Ever since I was a child, people said my family was cursed,” says a far less High School Musical-themed and much more 1980s Texas-infused version of Zac Efron, in the opening seconds of The Iron Claw’s trailer, released last October. “Mom tried to protect us with God. Pop tried to protect us with wrestling,” he continues. On-screen, we also see a man who bears little to no resemblance to the once-teenage singing heartthrob. As Kevin Von Erich, he is physically immense and He-Man-like, with veins peeking through his skin as he bounces off the elastic ropes of a squared, cushioned ring, from one side to the other.
The Iron Claw quickly became one of the most talked-about and eagerly anticipated films of the year, with snippets of the production’s first taste flooding our social media feeds. And with such a heavyweight cast, as Efron shares screen time with The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, Lily James, Harris Dickinson, and Holt McCallany, it’s no wonder that star power alone would play such a significant role in catapulting it into the public eye. But far from the tiny speedos, ’70s mullets, and performative fight scenes, those who walk into theatres this evening in the UK to watch Sean Durkin’s take on the story of the legendary family of wrestlers are in for a brilliant, heart-wrenching, and sob-inducing treat.
“It’s been a very, very long process,” director Sean Durkin tells me as we connect over Zoom on a Wednesday afternoon ahead of the film’s release. “I started writing it, like, eight, almost nine years ago now. And it’s been a story that has been stuck with me since I was a little kid. So, in some ways, it’s a story that started to form when I was nine years old. It’s really a lifelong dream project,” he shares.
The Von Erichs made history as one of the biggest families in the wrestling scene. A dynasty of champions, born from the doomed-to-fame figure of Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), and his sons, Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and Mike (Stanley Simons). But outside the ring, their legacy is a tale of horror, and a reflection on patriarchal and fraternal structures, trauma bonding, grief, and the price paid for an insatiable thirst for success. Read our conversation with Sean Durkin on The Iron Claw’s complexity below…
How did you first get into the story, and how challenging was it for you to narrow it down to its core? I had the opportunity to watch the film beforehand, and it is incredibly emotionally charged. How do you find common ground between exploring such a physical element as wrestling, while also introducing such intense debates on patriarchy, brotherhood, and gender-related stigmas?
Yeah, it’s a really rich story, which is why I was so drawn to it. But it’s a massive story. And so, a lot of the years of writing was, like, chipping away to find out what the core is, but also to not lose the nuance, or to lose how many complicated layers there are. So, it was like chipping away without oversimplifying it. And it’s just, you know, detail by detail, and making sure to hold on to all of those things. I really wanted something that both celebrated the family, celebrated wrestling, celebrated this great moment in their life, and showed their brotherhood and their love, but also examined and challenged wrestling and these sort of false ideals of manliness and these very crushing ideals of masculinity, really wanting to look at those and pull those apart.
When did you first connect with the Von Erichs?
I knew about them when I was a kid. I’d seen Kerry wrestle live. I had watched tapes of them wrestling as brothers together. And then I remember when Kerry died, I remember where I was, I remember reading about it and being really affected. I think because I had seen him and also because I knew other brothers had died. And I just thought about their family and how tragic that was. My dad had lost a brother previously, so I made some personal connections, I think, to their family from my own.
Did you have a personal interest in the sport at that time? Has wrestling always been a part of your life?
Yeah, it was always a part, in particular when I was a kid. I think it started when I was about seven, eight, through about age 12, I was really, really into wrestling and then, you know, remained interested in wrestling. But it was really at that time that I formed [this interest] and it was also where I explored writing for the first time in a lot of ways. Because I was playing with wrestling toys really extensively, and had these very detailed worlds that I was creating using toys. And it was sort of the early days of writing for me.
How did you navigate the balance between staying true to the story and honouring the family’s legacy, while also exercising your creative license?
Yeah, it’s a difficult balance. No film has ever told the story of a person, you know, or a family. It’s just not possible. And so you just have to do what you can to tell the most sensitive, thoughtful version of a story. And obviously, with this family, there’s far more tragedy than it is in the movie. So I had to cut out a lot of very difficult things that just didn’t really fit. And I ultimately decided, you know, the core of the film that I could make was about Kevin and his survival. So I had to make choices around what to include based on that. So in the end, if it wasn’t directly to deal with Kevin’s survival, it ultimately didn’t quite fit in the movie.
I know that you were in contact with the family throughout this process. How did this relationship come about, and when did you initially reach out to them?
I got in touch with the family when we were heading into production. Once I was done with the script and I knew what it was, and I could stand behind my decisions, I reached out to let Kevin know it was happening and to talk him through, you know, what it was about and what decisions I was making. And so we started a dialogue and we got along really well. And we just sort of talked throughout the shoot and post, and I got to know him and his kids, as well as Kerry’s kids. And really just tried to just communicate to the whole family what it was, where we were at. And then as soon as it was done, I showed them all privately, so they had time to watch and process and have some space for that.
I find the wrestling scenes particularly fascinating. What were your biggest challenges when filming them, especially considering that the actors had no background in the sport?
Yeah, it was really, really challenging. The wrestlers, or the actors, needed to learn how to wrestle, which none of them had experience with. We did a series of training sessions individually with Chavo Guerrero. And then we did some group sessions as well when we were in prep. And once the guys kind of knew the basics of wrestling, we started to choreograph as much of the matches as we could. But we got really lucky that the guys took to it really well, and they really were naturals. So they were able to wrestle full matches, which allowed us to shoot full matches and really get into the emotion of the match, as opposed to just focusing on the stunts.
And still speaking about the cast, which roles would you say were the easiest for you to fill? Were there any actors you had in mind from the get-go of writing the script?
I don’t write with anyone in mind, but definitely started, you know, working on some short lists as we were going. And Zac has been someone I wanted to work with for a very long time, and he was top of the list for various reasons, you know, his physicality, his athleticism. And then when we met we really got along and he was really excited by the idea of it. He has this very sweet quality about him that Kevin has, and I felt like I wanted that from the person playing Kevin. He just ticked all the boxes, and I wanted to work with him for a really long time, so.
The film also has an important mythical aspect to it. How did you approach exploring this side of the story?
Yeah, that was a big draw for me. When I first thought about the family, I kind of remembered that they have this family curse, and, you know, there’s all these things that I’m interested in around masculinity and sort of how we express in a family or don’t express and don’t communicate, and all this sort of repression. And then on top of that, there’s this mythical Greek tragedy element. The story’s almost Shakespearean in a lot of ways, and I was really interested in that and I really leaned into that in terms of form when I was starting out, because it was such a sprawling story, so I used Greek tragedy structurally to try and find a way in.
And so I looked at some of those elements of how to contain the story, and how to find the core of the story. But I’m always interested, in all my films, in how to bring almost like a touch of genre into drama. Exploring filmmaking styles that you can achieve in genre and apply them to drama is really interesting to me. So I always try to do that. And for this, to have this notion of a curse lingering over a very grounded, you know, family drama was again, really, really intriguing to me.
Looking back, do you have any particular scene that stood out as the hardest one for you to film or that is most special to you?
Yeah, I’d just say like the big wrestling matches were really challenging. Cause we’re, you know, doing them live and if you do a live match, it happens once and it’s, you know, it takes 15 minutes and that’s that. But to shoot them over and over again… I think in particular the Harley race match, the Kevin Harley race match, where it was so sort of long and layered and extensive and there’s so many pieces to it. And it’s just, it’s a lot to do in a day, you know? And to keep that energy up and to keep the audience energy up, you know, we had hundreds of people there watching it live and it was just, yeah, it’s just really, really challenging. So many things can go wrong at all times.
Another crucial aspect of the story for me is the portrayal of their bond. I’m curious about the approach you took with the cast to ensure their connection felt authentic and strong. Did you have any specific strategies in mind to achieve this level of cohesion?
I had a feeling from casting and talking to them that they would get along. And so when I build the family, I thought about that, but you’re not always right. Like I’ve done that before and I was wrong, you know. But they just had it immediately. But I think it was furthered by a few things. One was the wrestling, they were in a wrestling bootcamp together very early on. And so I think they bonded sort of physically, you know, in tight physical spaces with each other, and that buids some connection. And then also we shot the ranch first. So everything on the ranch, all the family stuff was there. And so we spent a lot of time out there together. And I think being isolated and shooting family dinner scenes and having downtime on the ranch was a good way to make everyone connect.
Lastly, Sean, how do you move forward from such a monumental chapter like this one?
I don’t know. I’m working on it, I’m still figuring that out.