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Time Out
Arriving like a body slam from film heaven for fans of pro-wrestling and emotional family dramas alike, ‘The Iron Claw’ is the critically acclaimed story of America’s real-life pro-wrestling Von Erich dynasty, set in ’80s Texas.
Director Sean Durkin, the auteur behind ‘The Nest’ (2020) and ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ (2011), has drawn on classics like ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘The Deer Hunter’ to tell a stunning family story that’s wrapped in the sweat-and-glory thrills of a sports movie.
‘The Iron Claw’ tells the tale of Texas’s Von Erich family, pro-wrestling’s most famous dynasty, and its path to fame, glory and tragedy under the eye of hard-driving patriarch Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany). Fritz was a wrestling champ himself in the 1960s and seeks to rekindle those ambitions via his gifted sons, Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), and Mike (Stanley Simons). Kevin’s doting girlfriend, Pam (Lily James), meanwhile, worries about the pitfalls of this bruising, high-pressure world. And how seriously should the boys take the so-called ‘Von Erich curse’?
‘Part family drama, part gothic horror, and part sports movie, it’s a true Greek tragedy in the American heartland,’
Mixing high-five-worthy triumphs in the ring against hissable opponents – prepare to heartily boo The Sheik, Bruiser Brody, and The Fabulous Freebirds – with an exploration of masculinity’s darker side, it also delivers a moving romance and a tale of brotherhood to melt the hardest heart. And ‘The Iron Claw’ is not just for people who know their Undertakers from their ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austins – although this may just be wrestling fans’ new favourite film. The ridiculously charismatic cast, led by Efron as you’ve never seen him, make this one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of 2024. ‘Part family drama, part gothic horror, and part sports movie, it’s a true Greek tragedy in the American heartland,’ says Durkin. Something for everyone, in other words – and with a heart the size of the Lone Star state itself.
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Fritz Von Erich
Holt McCallany
Fritz Von Erich
Holt McCallany
Doris VON Erich
Maura Tierney
Doris VON Erich
Maura Tierney
PAM
Lily james
KEVIN Von Erich
ZAC EFRON
KEVIN Von Erich
ZAC EFRON
PAM
Lily james
DAVID VON Erich
Harris Dickinson
Jeremy Allen White
KERRY Von Erich
Jeremy Allen White
MIKE VON Erich
Stanley Simons
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KERRY Von Erich
Kerry Von Erich
Jeremy Allen White
Played by superstar-in-the-making Jeremy Allen White – AKA smouldering but vulnerable chef Carmy in ‘The Bear’ – Kerry is a gifted, charismatic athlete whose Olympic dreams are shattered by America’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. Cue a career change and the chance to parlay those sporting talents in the ring alongside his brothers. ‘Daunting’ is how the actor describes the challenge of playing the beefy golden boy. ‘I thought I was in pretty good shape to start with, but Kerry is something else,’ says White.
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Fritz Von Erich
Holt McCallany
‘A larger-than-life character’ is how Holt McCallany describes the family’s figurehead, Fritz Von Erich. As ‘The Mindhunter’ star is at pains to point out, the one-time pro-wrestler only wants the best for his beloved sons, but he does have a seriously fixed idea of what that is – and refuses to deviate from that path even when alarm bells start ringing. ‘They were baby faces who became rock stars,’ he tells Interview Magazine of the Von Erich boys. The film takes its name from Fritz’s own signature move: a claw-like face grab that he passes on to his sons like a particularly violent kind of family heirloom.
Doris VON Erich
Maura Tierney
‘The Affair’ and ‘ER’ star Maura Tierney plays Dottie, the Von Erich family’s steady, Bible-quoting matriarch. She loves her kids dearly but struggles to step into their corner in times of need, instead deferring to her husband and his plan to mould them all into wrestling superstars. ‘She came from a very specific time and place, and she’s very religious,’ Tierney tells The Mary Sue. ‘Society then [put] a premium on being very stoical and leaving the man to run the household.’ Can mum shake off those and rush to the rescue of her glory-seeking sons?
PAM
Lily james
The Von Erichs have been described as ‘the Kennedys of sport’ and Pam is the family’s answer to Jackie Kennedy. Played by ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Pam & Tommy’ star Lily James, another award-nominated member of the stellar cast, she’s beautiful, smart and empathetic – and she has her heart set on Kevin. ‘She’s got a real force of spirit about her,’ says James of her character. ‘She’s someone who cuts through the inherited toxic masculinity and this idea of repressing your feelings and holding it all in.’
KEVIN Von Erich
ZAC EFRON
The film’s protagonist is eldest brother Kevin Von Erich, played by an almost unrecognisably buff Zac Efron. A force of nature in spandex, Kevin is as kind-hearted and sensitive outside the ring as he is a suplex-delivering, elbow-dropping agent of chaos inside it. The legend of a family ‘curse’ weighs particularly hard on him. ‘“The Iron Claw” is the story of a guy who successfully breaks a vicious cycle in his family, and is able to rise above and move forward with love in his life,’ explains Efron. Don’t be too distracted by the actor’s enormo-physique: his performance is a tour de force.
MIKE VON Erich
Stanley Simons
The least brawny brother, the sweet-natured ‘Mikey’ Von Erich isn’t immediately cut out for the ring. In fact, his real passion is music, playing in a prog rock band on the quiet to avoid angering his dad. Fittingly, he’s played by fresh-faced newcomer Stanley Simons, who has happy memories of bonding with his more famous co-stars on set. ‘Sean [Durkin] wanted to shoot the [Von Erich] ranch scenes first so that we bonded,’ he tells Interview Magazine. ‘It was sick because they got a bunch of ’80s workout equipment. We were just throwing around the football, looking at the cows, and working out.’
DAVID VON Erich
Harris Dickinson
Played by fast-rising actor Harris Dickinson (‘Triangle of Sadness’), David lives in the shadow of older brother Kevin. Then his dreams of glory in Dallas’s famous Sportatorium arena – a 3500-capacity bearpit that the film recreates in pinpoint detail – get a boost when he reveals a talent for the kind of flamboyant trash-talking TV promoters die for. It’s a dream role for the wrestling-loving Londoner. ‘I was a big WWE fan, so when I got this through I was like: Yeah man, this is going to be cool,’ he tells Time Out. ‘It’s handled so well by the script: it’s about the wrestling, yes, but it’s mainly about the family and their tragedy.’
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MIKE VON Erich
Stanley Simons
DAVID VON Erich
Harris Dickinson
Doris VON Erich
Maura Tierney
Fritz Von Erich
Holt McCallany
PAM
Lily james
KEVIN Von Erich
ZAC EFRON
DAVID VON Erich
Harris Dickinson
MIKE VON Erich
Stanley Simons
KERRY Von Erich
Jeremy Allen White
