How Holt McCallany Hit the Gym and Learned to Wrestle for His Role as ‘Iron Claw’s’ Von Erich Patriarch

variety.com:

Stuart Miller Sean Durkin doesn’t typically think about actors while writing a screenplay, but while he was working on “The Iron Claw,” his movie about the tragedy-riddled pro wrestling Von Erich family, he checked out the David Fincher series “Mindhunter.” “When I saw Holt I thought immediately, ‘I want this guy,’” Durkin recalls of Holt McCallany, who plays the domineering patriarch, Fritz Von Erich, whose signature move from his time in the ring was the Iron Claw, and who oversees a brood of four sons each of whom follows him into the wrestling ring. “If I didn’t get Fritz right the whole movie would fall apart and Holt had the presence and an intensity we needed.” McCallany knows fighting, but a very different sport: he played boxing trainer Teddy Atlas in “Tyson,” appeared in “Fight Club” and starred as a heavyweight champion in the FX series “Lights Out.” He even did some amateur fighting.

But professional wrestling, for all its scripted outcomes, has its own very physical demands. McCallany had just one fight scene, Durkin says, just a half-day shoot. “He was so all in and got into such incredible shape for that he had to wear a fat belly the rest of the time.” McCallany did more than just get fit, he learned the ropes.

At Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn (where he’d trained for “Lights Out”), he sought out Hall of Fame pro wrestler Johnny Rodz, who in the 1980s performed at Madison Square Garden against Kevin Von Erich (played in the film by Zac Efron). “Holt’s a very friendly person and came in with this big smile, walking around doing the Iron Claw,” the octogenarian Rodz recalls, in his office while bodies bounce off a canvas a few feet away. “The first thing I said was, ‘Shut down the smile because the guy you’re.