Soaring and flying in "High School Musical" proved to be beneficial to Zac Efron in "The Iron Claw".
Zac Efron had a breakout role as Troy Bolton in the "High School Musical" trilogy. Years later, he starred in "The Iron Claw" as Kevin Von Erich, a member of the Von Erich wrestling family. They say wrestling isn't ballet, but dancing proved to be a beneficial tool for Efron in the latter role.
Speaking with W Magazine, Efron described how his background in dance, including his experience from "High School Musical", helped him with "The Iron Claw".
"Dancing and wrestling are surprisingly similar. There's a choreographed element to both, and the more you do it, the better you get. Also, just the sense of moving with a partner: Sometimes you lead, and sometimes you're holding on to the other guy. The learning curve for wrestling is you just go for it. For stuff like climbing up on the ropes and jumping off, you’ve just got to nut up and go for it. There's no real practicing," Efron said.
Efron also described how people sing songs from "High School Musical" to mess with him, and "The Iron Claw" cast was no exception. He detailed how he had to stay in character when someone started singing a song during a scene for "The Iron Claw".
"People like to do that to mess with me. It's pretty funny. We had a scene where we show up to a party where Stanley, I think, is singing a song. He performed it live, and then they just continued to move on to another song, and it was something from High School Musical. I had to stay in character while that was going on, and everybody else was just losing it. The camera was on me, and I was just trying to stay in character. It put me in Kevin's shoes a little bit. I felt very uncomfortable," Efron said.
Efron and co-star Jeremy Allen White previously teased their interest in having an actual match. Check out their comments here.
John Cena praised Efron for his performance in "The Iron Claw". Click here to see what he had to say.
In a previous interview, Efron discussed his respect for wrestlers. Click here to see what he had to say.
