Zac Efron On How His Background Helped Him With The Iron Claw

In an interview with W Magazine, Zac Efron spoke about how his background in dance helped him with the wrestling scenes in The Iron Claw. Efron plays Kevin Von Erich in the film and his performance has been heavily praised. Here are highlights:

On how his background helped with wrestling scenes: “Dancing and wrestling are surprisingly similar. There’s a choreographed element to both, and the more you do it, the better you get. Also, just the sense of moving with a partner: Sometimes you lead, and sometimes you’re holding on to the other guy. The learning curve for wrestling is you just go for it. For stuff like climbing up on the ropes and jumping off, you’ve just got to nut up and go for it. There’s no real practicing.”

On if he was a fan of wrestling growing up: “Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to watch wrestling. My parents didn’t like it because my brother and I would then start wrestling. But we snuck it. The Iron Claw is about the Von Erich family. These guys completely changed the world of wrestling.”

On the attire he wears in the wrestling scenes: “It doesn’t leave much to the imagination! I got pretty beat up, but you feel like a warrior. It’s kind of fun.”