Jeremy Allen White and Zac Efron checked in with The Iron Claw production about how intensely they should train to play wrestlers.
“I asked. I remember for the wrestling stuff, I was like, ‘Do real wrestlers do something or are they just on their own?’” White, 32, quipped during a Thursday, December 21, interview on Barstool Sports’ KFC Radio, seemingly referring to performance-enhancing drugs. “And everyone was like, ‘They’re on their own,’ then I was like, ‘We’re on our own.’”
Efron, 36, concurred with his costar, noting that “you can’t help but have that moment” while training.
“‘Do I slip something in here?’” Efron jokingly chimed in. “We also really stayed on during matches too, [and] there was no layer of protection under [my briefs]. Like, if those come off, we got a real audience out there.”
The Iron Claw, which hit theaters on Friday, December 22, stars Efron and White as wrestling champs Kevin Von Erich and Kerry Von Erich, respectively. The film follows the Von Erich family’s real-life wrestling dynasty. (Harris Dickinson plays Kevin and Kerry’s brother David Von Erich.)
While White, Efron and Dickinson, 27, all got ripped to play professional athletes, White joked on Thursday that “it wasn’t even a question” who was the strongest in a nod to Efron.
“I mean, I did [put in effort too]. I ate more and I lifted stuff, but it’s the truth,” White added.
Efron, for his part, pointed out that White also had a “killer transformation” to portray Kerry. “It was wild,” the High School Musical star quipped on Thursday. “One of the cool things in the movie is Jeremy … does these overhead push-ups from the ground. Like, those are hard to do! I can’t get many reps in those [and] I was impressed, man. You blew out, like, 10 to 15 in one take — and then again when you were doing that kegstand.”
Efron explained: “I was there watching that scene and it was Lily [James] and I, we had coverage, so the camera was just watching us watch him and [Jeremy] just kept going. It was unreal.”
While White accepted his costar’s praise, he admitted that he also had “a lot of help” to get in shape.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” White previously said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last month. “I knew I had to eat more, so I ate more. I knew I had to lift heavy things, so I lifted heavy things. And I knew that you should try to stay away from [cardio]. I like to run, I like to do jump-rope in my everyday life, that makes me feel good, these guys didn’t do a lot of that stuff. It was just, like, kind of lifting.”
The Iron Claw is currently in theaters.
