LOS ANGELES — When the first look at the movie “The Iron Claw” dropped in July, stars Jeremy Allen White and Zac Efron stood out for two things: their ‘80s-style haircuts and their beefed-up physiques.
Even the actors themselves were shocked by their physical transformations into professional wrestlers.
“He’s so annoying, he’s so annoying,” White told Variety, referring to Efron from the red carpet of the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday. White was recalling how amazed he was at Efron’s results when he saw his co-star on set after their separate training regimens.
“I had been training for months,” the “Bear” actor said with an incredulous smile, “lifting and doing this and doing that and eating more, and I showed up, and I saw him, and I’m like, ‘What is this even for? Why do I even try?’”
And Efron reacted similarly to his reflection in the mirror.
“In the best way possible, I did not look anything like me,” Efron said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter at the premiere. “It was jarring at first, but we kind of put it together piece by piece.”
In the new A24 biographical sports drama, Efron and White play brothers who are a part of the Von Erichs, a family of pro wrestlers from Texas who reached their peak in the 1980s. For their roles, both actors also donned different hairdos, including wigs, and outfits, which Efron said “looks kind of ridiculous” and “pretty crazy.”
“When you put them all together in the sets that our team built and get out there in the ring under those lights, it looks like the Von Erichs, man, and that was our goal. I think it added a lot to it,” he added.
White spoke of the grueling, physical preparation earlier this year with Esquire, sharing that he was “eating all the time — like, never stopping.” He said that “you don’t feel great” and “it’s no way to live.”
White credited Efron as a helpful model in his approach to gaining mass. Efron learned from his preparation for 2017’s “Baywatch,” a process that led to struggles with insomnia and depression, he told Men’s Health in 2022. He admitted he was over-training and taking “way too many diuretics for way too long.”
“He’s so focused and knowledgeable on training, diet, all that,” White said. “In terms of a physical transformation, I think he kind of blew us all out of the water.”
During this week’s L.A. premiere, White also praised Efron for his mental and emotional preparation. Along with intense moments in the ring, the film also portrays the family’s tragedies.
“He was a great motivator as kind of the captain of the ship,” White said of Efron.
