Holt McCallany Recalls Training With Johnny Rodz Until 1 A.M. For ‘The Iron Claw’

Holt McCallany talks training for ‘The Iron Claw’.

‘The Iron Claw’, which is due in theaters on December 22, 2023, profiles the tragic history of one of wrestling’s great families, the Von Erich family. 

Holt McCallany has one of the biggest roles in the film, as he portrays the character of Fritz Von Erich.

While speaking to Josh Nason of F4WOnline for a recent interview, McCallany admitted that wrestling is a grueling sport before noting that he would attend long training classes with Johnny Rodz.

“The truth of the matter is, it’s a grueling sport. You can’t gas out, you can’t blow up in there, you’ve got to be able to — some of these matches can be ten minutes, some of them can be fifteen minutes and you have to have the conditioning. You have to have the endurance but you also have to have the technique so you can take the bumps and not got injured, because you’ve got to come back tomorrow night and wrestle every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights, week in and week out. We were with Johnny and class wasn’t over until Johnny said it was over. He’s got the keys to the place and like I said, he’ll stay there until one in the morning, and we often did.”

McCallany then dove deep into why he chose to train with Johnny Rodz and his students before getting to set, noting that he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

“He knew everything about the story, whether it was the anecdotes he could share with me, and all of that was critically important — but it was the training. It was welcoming me into his wrestling club and allowing me to wrestle his best guys and then they also become your instructors too, because they have a lot of ring time. These are guys that aspired to become professional wrestlers, just like I aspired to become a professional actor. They’ve devoted their life to this profession, and they’ve learned a lot. If I make a mistake, Johnny will critique me. But before he gets the opportunity to, one of his more experienced wrestlers might say, ‘Hey, you’re making this harder than it has to be.’ I’m just a sponge, I’m just there to soak up as much knowledge as I can, because the day is going to come where I have to get on the plane to Baton Rouge and start the choreography. I like to do as much as I can myself, meaning I’ll choreograph an entire match along with Johnny’s help and then present it to Chavo and say, ‘What do you think?’ Chavo, he’ll make adjustments to it, he’ll put his touches on it and then we present that to Sean [Durkin]. By the time we get to Sean, I’ve been through the wrestlers at Johnny’s club, I’ve presented and gotten notes from Chavo Guerrero, and now I’m getting notes from the director. There’s a whole process that you go through, you just don’t show up on the set and turn to Sean Durkin and say, ‘What do you think, what should I do here?’ No, no, no. I have my version of what I’d like to do, and I’m gonna present that to Sean and he’ll make adjustments to it as he sees fit.”

Director Sean Durkin recently explained why he cut the story of Chris Von Erich from ‘The Iron Claw’. Fans can learn more by clicking here.

‘The Iron Claw’ will stream on MAX after its theatrical release. Learn more here.

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