The Iron Claw used a different method for filming wrestling scenes than most other media projects according to a former WWE Superstar.
With most productions involving wrestling, only the spots that make the final cut are actually used, usually entrances and/or the finish with one or two moved in the middle. However, when it comes to the upcoming A24 biopic on the Von Erich family, the production team went more old-school with their methods.
Former WWE Superstar Chavo Guerrero is now the go-to wrestler when it comes to bringing scenes inside the squared circle to the entertainment world. As well as previously working on wrestling-based series such as GLOW and Young Rock, Guerrero trained the cast of The Iron Claw for their in-ring scenes and stars in the movie as The Sheik.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Guerrero gave a behind-the-scenes breakdown of how the matches featured in the biopic are filmed. With full matches needing to be filmed again and again, Guerrero described the gruelling process the Hollywood stars went through and how it compared to his time in WWE:
“In The Iron Claw, we filmed entire matches. Sean Durkin, the director, really wanted to get the feel of a real match, and then pick and choose what he wanted. There are other productions that I’m shooting like 30 seconds, or 10 seconds or sometimes they want one move. But Sean wanted these wrestling sequences. So, if you see one of the opening matches, that happens to be me and Zac [Efron], that’s probably a 10 to 12-minute match. And we film that probably 10 or 15 times. So I tell the actors sometimes this is easier than what we do in WWE.
But sometimes it’s much harder. Because give me 20 minutes in a match at WrestleMania, great, let’s do it on a pay-per-view. But I’m 20 minutes and I’m done. I go you’re doing this three to four to five or 10-minute match 10 to 15 times, you’re doing it over four hours, and then you’re taking a break to go to lunch and you’re coming back and filming it again.
So it’s very difficult. By the end of a couple of those matches that Zac had, he was spent. You couldn’t tell in the match. But afterwards, he even came to me. He goes, Man, this is may be one of the hardest days I’ve ever had on set. This is really hard. Well, yeah.”
Guerrero was also asked if the actors were taught how to take bumps while training to be professional wrestlers. Guerrero stated that the bumps were carried out by the wrestlers as much as possible:
“I tried not to bump them as much as I can. There’s sometimes you can’t avoid it. But I work around it. So a lot of times I’ll have the actor in there with another actor who’s maybe a wrestler in a perfect world, they can bump and it hides those bumps. I mean, that’s what we do in wrestling as well. There are a lot of times I’m in there with somebody who’s hurt. You’ll never tell if they’re hurt. Because I’m the one doing all the moves. I am the one bumping around.”
Also during the interview, Chavo Guerrero explains why Chris Von Erich is not portrayed in The Iron Claw.
The Stars Come Out For The Iron Claw Premiere
On December 11th, the Von Erich biopic held its premiere in Los Angeles, California. AEW World Champion MJF, who plays Lance Von Erich in the movie, was in attendance at the premiere. In a somewhat surprising meeting that wrestling fans thought they would never see, MJF met up with and was photographed alongside John Cena.
During the same interview, Chavo Guererro heaped praise on Dominik Mysterio.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet and leave a h/t to Inside The Ropes.