-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-nominated actor
you know from shows like "Shameless" and "The Bear."
He stars in "The Iron Claw,"
which is in theaters December 22nd.
Let's take a look.
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-♪ What you say about his company ♪
♪ Is what you say about... ♪
-Please welcome back to the show Jeremy Allen White!
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So happy you're back.
-I'm happy to be back. Thank you, man.
-You know, I'm a huge fan of the "Bear" soundtrack,
but this movie has some real early '80s bangers in it.
-Some good needle drop. -Some real good needle drops.
It was a -- I mean, for me, this was great
because it was an era where that music means a lot to me.
And that was when, you know, as a kid,
I was into this wrestling world. -Were you?
-I was, but I think maybe a little
after the story of these Von Erichs,
which is this is sort of late '70s, early '80s.
This is a real-life wrestling family.
-Yes. -Did you know anything
about them before? -I knew nothing,
I had such, like, peripheral knowledge
of professional wrestling. I had some friends into it
when I was young. I never got into it.
So my introduction to professional wrestling
was through the Von Erichs, yeah.
-And then your other introduction is,
you had to become a Kerry Von Erich.
So your first introduction to this person is,
they showed you a picture. -Sean, the director said,
"Hey, I want you to do this movie about these brothers,
these wrestlers, really --" -I was like,
"Amazing. I love this. Let's talk about it."
He was like, "Okay, I want you to play Kerry."
So I was like, "Alright, I'll Google 'Kerry Von Erich.'"
And I did. -And then this came up.
[ Laughter ]
-It's a large man. -Yeah.
-I mean, people can get in shape for roles, but --
-I can get in shape for a role. -But people can't get taller.
-No. I can't, uh... [ Laughter ]
I told Sean I can try to act that big."
-Yeah. -"But I don't know
if I can act, you know, two feet taller,
200 pounds more." You know, it would be...
-You have your own words. I read an interview.
You described yourself as a short king.
-No, no, no, no, no, no. Not my own words.
-Not your own words? Whose words?
-This is very embarrassing for me.
I would not call myself that. -Okay.
-Cam, the journalist said -- or I was talking about Kerry,
and I was like, "He's a large man.
I'm not a large man."
And Cam, the journalist, who I love,
was like, "No, you're a short king."
-Gotcha. -And I went, "S-Sure."
-Yeah. -And that was it.
-But before I went into your dressing room,
everybody said, "Remember, call him Short King."
-Right. Which you did. Thank you.
-So, you might not have said it first.
-I don't want to say it, but I do want everybody else
to say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-You did, obviously -- And I mean,
I think anybody who's seen clips of it,
obviously, Zac Efron has transformed his body.
You guys did put the time in. And then you have to,
obviously, become believable wrestlers.
-Correct.
-How much time was spent training?
-Not not enough -- for me, at least, I think.
Um, but let's see, we had about two months
to exercise and eat a lot and try to get bigger.
And then we shot the film in Baton Rouge in Louisiana,
and we got there maybe three weeks early
and worked with this really amazing wrestler,
Chavo Guerrero.
Um, and he took us through the steps.
It was kind of like a crash course
in wrestling. And like learning any skill,
at a certain point, you kind of just have to,
like, jump and hope and pray. -I feel like
you've just been through this because, obviously,
in "The Bear," you're playing a chef.
There's a lot of chefs who are going to have opinions about it
and are going to appreciate authenticity
and call you out if it's not. -Sure.
-I would imagine wrestling is the same,
if not more so. Have you received feedback
yet from people in the world of wrestling?
-I haven't -- I haven't heard a lot of opinions yet.
And so I'm assuming that's a good thing
if nobody's, like, yelling at me.
-In the modern era, if people have
negative opinions, they will find you.
-They'll find you and let it be known.
Um, no. But, yeah, you're absolutely right.
I mean, I think the fans for professional wrestling,
the story of the Von Erichs, these guys,
like, I wasn't familiar with them.
But I think, like, all of the big guys today
and in the past decades were just, like,
massive fans of the Von Erichs.
And I think they really inspired,
like, all the guys doing it today.
-It's also, you know -- it is a really moving film.
Uh, it's a wonderful film about family,
but it's a true life.
The story is incredibly tragic about these brothers.
And, you know, Kevin, who Zac plays.
-Yeah. -I know he was involved.
And obviously there are other Von Erichs
who are still with us.
Was sharing the film with them and having their hands in it --
that must have been a very important piece of it.
-That was major, yeah.
Kevin Von Erich is still with us,
and he wasn't incredibly involved
in the process of filming,
but he did give Sean Durkin, our director, his blessing.
Um, and all he asked was to make sure
that it was clear how much he loved his brothers
and how much they loved one another.
Um, "As long as you do that, I'll enjoy the film," you know?
And I think Sean delivered on that.
And it was something that Zac and Harris and Stanley and I,
who play all the brothers were aware of
through the process of making it.
Like, "If we can just, like, forge this bond
and make it feel true and honest,
um, then we've done a good job."
-I thought you really did.
I thought that part of it, the sibling-affection
part of it came through clear. -Yeah.
-You, again, didn't strike me as a lot of CGI in this film,
that when you were jumping off the top rope,
that's you jumping off the top rope.
-That's all of us. -I imagine,
like, you think, "I could jump off the top rope,"
then you get up there and I imagine
it looks a little bit higher than you thought.
-Yeah. It's frightening. It's really frightening.
But I guess, yeah, like I said, it's like anything.
It was the same thing with cooking for me.
You know, I didn't feel like I was particularly good at that.
But at a certain point, you kind of just have to,
um -- you have to jump and hope. And we had we had
really amazing guys, like, real wrestlers
that we were training with and shooting with,
like the guys in that clip who played the Freebirds.
Um, and they protected us. You know?
They made us look good. -It's true.
Like, ultimately, you have to, in both "The Bear" and this,
I mean, you have to be confident.
Like, if you're on the top rope, you can't be like, [Whimpering]
-Exactly, exactly.
And if you're holding a very sharp knife...
-Yeah, cutting a carrot. "The Bear" would be so bad
if every time you cut a carrot, you're like, "Aah!"
-Yeah, exactly, yeah. [ Laughter ]
-I have a bunch of questions about "The Bear."
We're going to be right back with Jeremy after this.