Zac Efron Says Pro Wrestlers Were Shocked by 'Iron Claw' Filming Schedule

The Iron Claw stars Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White in lead roles as members of the legendary Von Erich wrestling family. Efron's castmates noted his commitment to his character Kevin Von Erich; he even spoke to real-life professional wrestlers to ensure every match scene turned out perfect.

Wrestling matches might not be long, but they're certainly physically taxing, and even the pros were taken aback by just how intense the Iron Claw shooting schedule was. Part of that included consecutive days of filming wrestling matches.

"These matches were anywhere from seven to 15 minutes long," Efron told Variety, "and we wouldn’t break at all. We would complete them, start to finish." The combatants would then do the whole scene over again.

"I was talking to a couple of professionals, and they were like, ‘Dude, we only do that a couple nights a week. We don’t have to do it multiple times in a row,'" Efron noted.

As a result, Efron was tired out from his hard work in front of the camera, but his fatigue ended up adding to his performance. "When you’ve just jumped off the top rope and been slammed a few times in the face and hit the mat really hard, you walk differently," he said.

Efron's training and commitment to his role scared his co-star Jeremy Allen White, who also underwent quite a physical transformation for the movie. During filming, White didn't even want to be seen next to Efron. "Yeah, I didn’t want to stand near Zac," he said during a screening of the film last month. "I mean, Zac looked so amazing and I think, yeah, just being around him was a motivator for me to eat more, train more."

The Iron Claw hits theaters Dec. 22.