Chavo Guerrero: Zac Efron And I Worked A 12 Minute Match 10-12 Times For ‘The Iron Claw’

Chavo Guerrero helped set the pace of the in-ring action in “The Iron Claw” with Zac Efron.

Chavo Guerrero helped choreograph the professional wrestling scenes in the upcoming A24 film, The Iron Claw. However, these were not just clipped cherry-picked elements of a professional wrestling fight filmed for a movie. 

Guerrero revealed in an interview with Chris Van Vliet that he was asked to set the tone for the wrestling segments of the film and work opposite Zac Efron, who is portraying Kevin Von Erich in the film, for the first wrestling match. Guerrero revealed that he worked with the Hollywood star in a full match at the request of the studio. 

According to Guerrero, the matches lasted about 12 minutes and they performed the full match about 12 times. 

“Our first real wrestling scene in the movie is — Sean Durkin, asked me to be the wrestler in there. He’s like, ‘I need you to really set the tone of this movie.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ So when that happened, we worked a 10-minute match or a 12-minute match over and over and over again. It wasn’t just clips and clips, they wanted to get the feel of an actual wrestling match and take the parts they wanted from it. So, we did that, I mean 10-12 times,” Chavo said. 

Asked about Zac Efron hitting a Diving Crossbody Splash in the movie, Guerrero says that once Efron hit the dive once, he was able to repeat it as much as he wanted. 

“I explained to him the first time, I go, ‘Look, the higher you jump, the easier it is going to be.’ It seems weird, but the higher you go, I can find you easier and you can find me.’ He was like, ‘Okay, I trust you,’ and he just went for it. Once he did it the one time, he did it 20 times. He could just do it, and do it, and do it, and do it.” 

Jeremy Allen White, the actor who is portraying former WWE Intercontinental Champion Kerry Von Erich, recently reflected on the appreciation he has developed for the art of professional wrestling by filming this movie. Read his comments here.

Some of the first reactions to the upcoming film describe it as “emotionally obliterating.” Read more here. 

‘The Iron Claw’ is set to be released in theaters on December 22, 2023. Fightful will continue to update fans on the latest news regarding the film.

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