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