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MOVIE FEATURE

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Real Life

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Actors

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Von Erichs (film)

Von Erichs

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Zac Efron

Kevin Von Erich

Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White absolutely crush it in this true story of the Von Erich brothers, who dominated the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Words Gill Pringle T hrough tragedy and triumph - and under the shadow of their domineering father and coach - the four brothers sought immortality at a cost none of them expected to pay. “The Von Erichs were magnets for attention, Shakespearean-like tragedy of the Von Erichs has haunted him since childhood, when he first became obsessed with wrestling. “I remember very specifically in the early ’90s, reading in a magazine how one of the brothers had just died. And I had this deep sadness for the Von Erichs. It just imprinted on me then,” he recalls. Efron, 36, hit the gym to transform his

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Jeremy Allen White

Kerry Von Erich

and the biggest rock stars in wrestling to ever come out of Texas,” says Efron, who portrays Kevin Von Erich in a career-defining performance. “They had a very quick rise, and they shined really bright. They were just dynamic athletes, all of them. And then awful things started to happen.” For director Sean Durkin, the almost

body into a muscle-bound hulk. “It was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, physically,” he says. “I started the most rigorous training and diet program that I’ve ever been on in my entire life. It was very tough. But it was ultimately a really big insight for me into who Kevin was - just the dedication that he was willing to put into his physicality, into wrestling, and into his body - the way that he strove for perfection.” Efron was under immense physical, but also

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Harris Dickinson David Von Erich

emotional, pressure, given that Kevin is the only one of the four Von Erich brothers still alive today. With Holt McCallany in the role of patriarch Fritz Von Erich, Harrison Dickinson and Stanley Simons play David and Mike Von Erich, respectively. White, 32, admits that he was daunted when he first studied a picture of Kerry Von Erich in preparation for his role. “I thought I was in pretty good shape to start with, but Kerry was

something else,” admits the actor, who has swiftly become a household name over the last two years thanks to his leading role in TV drama The Bear . “So I did everything I could. I ate a lot more, lifted a lot. But Zac is definitely the most

• The Iron Claw is out April 10

fit out of all of us, so I tried to keep him on the other side of the room when I had a scene with him!”

Harris Dickinson, Zac Efron, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and Jeremy Allen White.

26 APRIL 2024

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