Chavo Guerrero Jr. shares some behind-the-scenes details of his work on The Iron Claw.
The film, directed by Sean Durkin, is set to release in theaters this December and tells the story of the legendary Von Erich family. Chavo spoke about the movie during a quick interview with Chris Van Vilet, where he revealed that he wrestled the film’s lead, Zac Efron, multiple times to capture the energy of a real wrestling match.
Our first real wrestling scene in the movie is — Sean Durkin, asked me to be the wrestler in there. He’s like, ‘I need you to really set the tone of this movie.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ So when that happened, we worked a 10-minute match or a 12-minute match over and over and over again. It wasn’t just clips and clips, they wanted to get the feel of an actual wrestling match and take the parts they wanted from it. So, we did that, I mean 10-12 times.
Efron, who plays Kevin Von Erich, hits a flying crossbody during one of his encounters with Chavo. Chavo told Van Vilet that Efron nailed the move once he realized the proper way to execute it.
I explained to him the first time, I go, ‘Look, the higher you jump, the easier it is going to be.’ It seems weird, but the higher you go, I can find you easier and you can find me.’ He was like, ‘Okay, I trust you,’ and he just went for it. Once he did it the one time, he did it 20 times. He could just do it, and do it, and do it, and do it.
Van Vilet also caught up with Efron, who spoke about his appreciation for pro-wrestling after completing work on The Iron Claw. You can read about that here, or you can check out Chavo’s full interview below.
