A Hollywood world premiere in Dallas for of one of the year’s most anticipated movies — which takes place in Dallas — automatically makes for history, but it was during the green carpet portion of the premiere when both White and Efron found out in real time that SAG-AFTRA had reached a temporary agreement with the major studios, thus ending the SAG-AFTRA strike. While this moment produced memeworthy reactions from White and Efron, who, at the time were promoting the movie through an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA, it was quite fitting: The story of The Iron Claw is one of tragedy and triumph. In real life, Kevin Von Erich lost five of his brothers — three to suicide, one to enteritis and one to electrocution.
Durkin has been a lifelong fan of wrestling and the Von Erich family, and wanted to unpack the layers of their camaraderie and sportsmanship. He reached out to the Von Erich family when the film began production and says they were supportive throughout the whole process.
“When you're making a film, you're just so in it all the time that you try to keep a balance, sort of like with any sort of work stress,” says Durkin. “You kind of just compartmentalize it and find the balance of it all.”
The movie is not an easy watch, with a myriad of raw, heavy emotions gripping the viewer at any given moment. Though The Iron Claw isn’t an entirely accurate depiction of events, as one of the Von Erich brothers isn’t included in the film, Von Erich says he was surprised by how well Durkin, Efron and White captured the essence of his family.
“I don't know how they did it,” says Von Erich, “but [Efron and White] seem to have the same mannerisms, little idiosyncrasies that only I knew about. I don't know how they got it down, but it's pretty impressive. … If you could take something from this, then I would hope that it would be that life is tough — sometimes you will get knocked down, but you keep fighting and never give up.”
These types of roles aren’t new challenges for White. On Hulu’s The Bear, White plays Carmen Berzatto, a recovering alcoholic chef who inherits a Chicago eatery following the death of his brother. He also came to fame on Showtime’s Shameless, where he played Philip “Lip” Gallagher, the son of drug addict and alcoholic parents Monica (Chloe Webb) and Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy).
Having a penchant for playing these characters with traumatic backgrounds, White says that it has become easier to separate these characters from himself.
“I think if I'm on set or on location, I try to stay really close to a feeling kind of as long as I can, as long as it's called for,” says White. “But then yeah, I've got kids, and when I want to go home and I want to visit them and that's really easy. Like, your guard goes down immediately, I think, when you spend time with your loved ones. So there's that for sure. But I think when you’re waiting for the job to end, you have to stay a little bit close to something while you're while you're in it.”
But even when away from home, it helps that White and Efron have a brotherly dynamic both off and on set.
“Jeremy is epic to work with, man,” says Efron. “He's got this stillness and electricity in his presence. It almost seems like he's not doing much, but he's got so much going on because it's real.”
The Iron Claw arrives in theaters Dec. 22.
