Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson & Director Sean Durkin Break Down 'Iron Claw' Scenes

You're supposed to make contact right

around the like chest, neck almost,

but then like pull it at the last

Do you guys wanna hit it?

Yeah. Let's just hit it.

We just go like, pow pow pow

Yeah, that's it. That's still really good

Force without the contact.

There is contact

It made, like a slap

but it's not like a... it doesn't hurt at all, right?

It's not supposed to, I mean maybe.

Hi, I am Zach Efron.

I'm Jeremy Allen White.

Hi, I'm Harris Dickinson.

And I'm Sean Durkin, director of the Iron Claw,

and this is notes on the scene.

[rock music]

I've been a fan of Von Eric since I was about nine years old

as a kid, I was just blown away by them in the ring.

They just had a, this connection in the ring and,

and excitement and I just loved the way

the sportatorium looked, that's where they wrestled.

And it just looked different than

anything else I had seen in the world of wrestling,

and so I was really drawn to them

and just wanted to explore what their life was like

outside the ring as well as in it.

Jared

[Sean] This is a scene where Fritz is trying

to control their fate and get them all in the ring.

I don't know if you've been thinking about your future,

but you should think about wrestling.

Now, I wouldn't wish wrestling on any of you.

I only wrestle to provide for y'all

and I always hoped you boys would choose another profession.

So that scene was supposed to be like the hottest day,

the height of, you know, a Texas summer.

Guys working in the fields,

but it was freezing cold.

It was like 37 degrees and really windy

and these poor guys had to like have their shirts

off for hours out there.

We were just doing press up the whole time.

We were just like, every time I looked over

I was just like trying to keep warm.

But the Olympics has been taken from you.

The way professional football was taken from me.

The world keeps taking from us and I'm sick of it.

I wanna fight back and the more

of us in it together, the better.

So Kerry, I want you to join your brothers in the ring.

Yes sir. I love that.

We all haven't seen it that many times.

We're just like, ooh, that's a good scene. I love it.

There was a thing to play with in in, in the whole family

where it was like a duty

that you're gonna follow your father's

and then your brother's footsteps into the ring.

And with Kerry

and with Mike, there were other paths for them

if things had gone differently.

We always were trying to play those really

subtly under the surface.

Kerry's almost out.

Yeah, yeah

Glad to hear it son.

[Kerry] Thank you.

[Kevin] You train a little brother. Woo. Okay.

[Jeremy] There is also something about like,

it was like we weren't able to celebrate until

Fritz like moved away.

There almost had to be like a moment of kind

of like stoicism around him.

And then once he got far enough away,

we felt like we were comfortable enough to kind

of like have a moment together.

And one of the interesting things I remember we were

in the once again off camera, we just like was,

were uncomfortable hearing the news,

but then as soon as he came around, right, we were actually,

we were pretty stoked.

There was always like obviously a level

of like quiet competition or loud competition,

but at this time was there that aspect

and like a shared moment between you guys of like,

Well, we're mostly just happy to have you back.

We're we're just stoked.

Also hearing him say

I never wanted you to be a wrestler. We were like, really?

There was an element of like

Yeah

And you had that that day.

You brought that that day.

I was like, I thought that was really good

Cause Fritz loved to say things like, yeah,

I, I would never want this for you.

But then completely guide everyone into the ring.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

[Sean] Yeah, the energy is totally different

once he steps away.

[Zac] Yeah. The tension drops.

And it is that feel like the trajectory shifting.

I think there's like both like fear

and excitement in this thing.

I think Kerry had just gotten home

and excited to see everybody,

but also probably feeling incredibly like lost, you know?

And then, and then here,

even since he knew it was coming,

you can see all of the post work that the,

Here's Mike and his shovel.

So that's scene ends with these three guys coming together,

but Little Brother Mike is sort of left out.

So this is a perspective change now to how Mike contributes

through his love of music

and it's through him playing Tom Sawyer

where Kerry gets the idea for their entrance music.

[electronic music]

[heavy breathing]

[weights clatter]

Are those twenties?

[rock music]

That was the actual song that they came out to.

And it rocks.

[rock music]

So we're using this. Yeah.

So we're using this sort of slow push in here

for this moment of this music arriving.

And then this is, this is the image

of the boys coming out together.

And it's one of the first images I remember from,

from seeing them wrestling.

Sort of frantic energy in the sportatorium

and the way the fans just threw themselves at these

three guys when they were together.

And it was their like collective energy

that really set them apart.

[rock music]

And then the camera moves around the ring.

We timed that with this coordinated move

where the guys were thrown off their jackets at the same

time rolling in the ring and then going into

[Zac] That, we had never done that before

From the jackets, to the slide under.

I feel like we were all like on different rhythms.

It's a small place to get through.

Like that's like a wire if you like have a foot up

or your face is up, you just run into a like taut wire.

So we, we were all like just diving underneath it,

I don't think we had really gotten it in perfect timing.

One of us had always like caught a heel or caught a knee

And that wasn't something we really did before.

That was really on the day.

And also like getting the slide right, like

that was the other thing is like doing it with enough pace.

You know, we wanted the camera

to be moving at a certain speed,

but amazingly we, we did this, we only did this twice.

We didn't do it a lot, right?

Yeah.

And I think this was actually the first take that we used.

So there was also like that thing of adrenaline, right?

Like there's, there's, I don't know,

300 people in here just like on the speed and

And you were lost in the track as well.

And the track is playing.

So there's like a real adrenaline to it that takes,

I think takes over that, that makes up for any lack of,

you know, sort of getting it right in rehearsal

or, or anything.

Look at Silas coming at you. That's a, that's a large man.

Silas is, he's like you said, he's like

6'5, 6'6, massive.

And he was like, we got this. I was like, really?

Are you sure?

I don't think I can throw you.

He goes, you just run up the ropes and then just hold on.

He's taking you on a ride.

Yeah. He is like, I'm just gonna take you for a ride.

I was like, all right, sweet.

And then like, I remember I, the first time I did it,

I made, I made this sound

when he pulled me over. I was like, EEEEEEEE

I was like, I need to not do that when we're filming.

[rock music]

Also, these guys are so good with their reactions.

They take all the punches really,

really well and we get to work with some really

I don't, I don't think I could've if I

wanted to hurt that man. I don't think that,

[Sean] I mean, the difference was like wrestling

when these guys like the real Kevin von Eric,

like they were, they were hitting each other for sure.

They were like, you're coming into my, my house.

Like I'm gonna hit you and show you who's boss. Like

Yeah, that, that was kind of a,

something Kevin was pretty well known for.

They they put themselves on the line to make it

as real as possible.

And that involved quite a bit of hitting.

[rock music]

[Sean] So then this is a building of a sports montage

that I always dreamed of doing.

So we're just going back and forth between the, the gym

and the preparation and in the ring.

And then another fun fact, this referee James Beard,

he was an actual WCCW referee

and was very, very close with Kerry in particular.

And he was there on this day.

And so he was coming over the monitor after

and standing with me and,

and just, you know, sort of giving me the,

you know, thumbs up on things, so.

[rock music]

This, this always scared me.

It scared me too.

I did not like, I did not like you doing this.

I didn't feel how close my head was

to the mat in the moment.

But then yeah, watching the playback,

I was like, oh wow, that was,

[Sean] It's pretty incredible.

And I didn't see you guys, you guys worked on

that one when I wasn't around.

So I didn't see that live until we did it.

And I couldn't believe that you could do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was also quite a funny position to be in.

Yeah, let's leave this right here.

[all laughing]

[rock music]

[Zac] You were doing those for real.

[Jeremy] That's also very impressive.

Could you do these before the movie

or did you like learn to do these?

[Jeremy] I think I, I could do maybe a

couple of them before.

Could you do some now for us?

I can I, yeah. One second, one second, one second.

[rock music]

[Zac] It's so fun to watch this back with you, dude.

To go on this journey with you, man. It's so fun.

I feel you took me back there too.

So it's, it's really special.

[Sean] Thanks for watching notes on the scene

for the Iron Claw

and we hope you enjoy the movie.

Nice.

[Zac] That look like I made it.

[Jeremy] Don't need to do that one again.