He’s better than you, and now Hollywood knows it. Maxwell Jacob Friedman made his feature film debut this past weekend in A24’s The Iron Claw, a biopic that chronicled the life story of the historic Von Erich wrestling family. MJF portrays Lance Von Erich, the kayfabe Von Erich brother, in a brief tag team match alongside Zac Efron’s Kevin Von Erich.
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“Literally what happened is [director] Sean Durkin had hit me up. ‘Hey man, can you send me some photos of yourself shirtless? I need to give Efron some inspiration,’” MJF joked to ComicBook.com’s Liam Crowley. “From what I was told, he was doing crunches in front of a photo of me for a couple months.”
As evident by his physique motivation for the film’s leading star, MJF’s contributions to The Iron Claw extended far beyond his limited screen time. The closing credits featured MJF’s name in massive block letters underneath “EXECUTIVE PRODUCER,” a role he did not sign on for, but one that he earned.
“I think it developed based on how much I contributed behind the scenes and the relationship that I got with Sean Durkin,” MJF noted. “He’s an incredible director and he created an incredible movie, along with Efron and [Holt] McCallany. Getting to work with those guys was incredible. Chavo Guerrero did an incredible job training these guys.”
MJF’s praise for The Iron Claw comes in its authenticity. The AEW World Champion mentioned that Hollywood adaptations of the squared circle often misinterpret what it actually is, but Durkin’s vision nailed it.
“It’s one of the best movie adaptions in regards to professional wrestling. A lot of the time when you watch a professional wrestling movie, you’re cringing because they get everything wrong,” MJF continued. “They’ll use words in the wrong context. Matches will happen in the wrong way. Someone will get pinned while they’re facing down. It’s a f–king mess. I feel like they really caught the vibe, not only of that generation of professional wrestling, but of professional wrestling as a whole.”
Much of that strong execution is thanks to the amount of legitimate professional wrestlers that Durkin brought onto the project. Beyond MJF, talent like AEW’s Ryan Nemeth and veteran competitor Chavo Guerrero had on-screen roles while simultaneously helping acclimate The Iron Claw‘s actors to wrestling.
That success is a two-way street as well. For as strong of a teacher that guys like MJF and Guerrero were, Efron and company reciprocated the same energy as students.
“He’s just an incredibly down to earth guy, pun intended. Watch his show on Netflix,” MJF said of Efron. “I really liked him. We talked about nutrition and diet. We shot the s–t in regards to my wrestling career and how I got started in wrestling. He shot the s–t with me with what it’s like being on the road as an actor. I explained what it’s like being on the road as a wrestler. We hung out in his trailer. He’s just a really cool dude. I can’t say enough nice things about him. We got to hang out for a little bit at the premiere as well.”
MJF and Efron also hung out when the cameras were rolling. While viewers only saw a small glimpse of Lance and Kevin sharing the screen together, MJF revealed that he shot multiple other scenes that ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor.
“There most certainly is [an extended scene]. I don’t know where it’s going to live,” MJF said. “There was a scene where me and him were talking, but me and Sean both completely understood that listen, I want this film to succeed, and the film needed to be about the brothers. As fun as I had shooting that scene, realistically, it didn’t add to the overarching story and the importance of the story between the brothers and what they were going through in dealing with the pressures that their father put on them. It didn’t fit in the pieces of the puzzle.
“I’m sure that you’re going to find that there was a lot of stuff that got cut and it wasn’t because it wasn’t good. I think everything that was shot was absolutely fantastic. Not just my stuff, but every actor had stuff that got cut. It’s just like there’s only so much time. The story that’s most important is the brothers. That’s what it came down to. I couldn’t agree with Sean Durkin more on the decisions he made. The film is an absolute masterpiece.”
MJF having his content cut was not an anomaly either, as every actor in The Iron Claw had moments that did not make the theatrical version.
“There were a lot of other things that were cut in regards to their history. If there is a director’s cut, I think people will have a lot of fun with it, but again, if there’s not, the theatrical cut is good,” MJF said. “I’m not just saying that because I’m an EP. The story kicks you in the f–king balls, man. That’s what you want. That’s what you want in a drama. There’s also moments of levity and there’s moments of comedy. It makes you want to cry and it makes you want to laugh. I can’t think of a better endorsement for a film than that.”
MJF had the chance to celebrate all of those emotions during The Iron Claw‘s Los Angeles premiere earlier this month. The stars came out for the screening, including WWE legend and current Hollywood A-Lister John Cena. As evident by social media, MJF and Cena did in fact meet one another and shared a conversation.
“This dude was a fathead on my wall in my bedroom. I was kind of s–tting my pants frankly,” MJF said of Cena. “The professional answer is I was very excited to meet with a peer, but the realistic answer is this was a guy I grew up watching. It’s a guy that I bought merchandise for. I bought tickets for. The fact that John posted the Burberry plaid on his Instagram after he met me was both cheeky and funny and really cool.”
Rubbing shoulders with Cena is just the latest full circle moment for MJF. His childhood wrestling fandom has long been documented and even interwoven into his AEW storylines, a luxury MJF notes is almost completely unique to pro wrestling.
“I think that’s the coolest thing about being a professional wrestler is you get to swim in circles and work with people that you literally grew up watching and idolizing. Not a lot of sports are like that. There’s not a lot of people that grew up watching Brett Farve, for example, at quarterback and then got to play against Brett Farve once they grew up,” MJF noted. “There’s a lot longer of a shelf life in pro wrestling, for the most part, than in most other major professional sports. The fact that I’ve gotten to work with and beat guys like Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, when in reality these guys have everyone I just named has been in wrestling for over a decade. How many sports is that normal with? Not many.”
As MJF notes, the Jerichos and Moxleys of the world are not just professional encounters, but legitimate colleagues, and he expects Cena to be the same one day.
“I look forward to working with him at some point down the road,” MJF said. “I most certainly feel I will. I can’t wait.”
It remains to be seen as to if MJF and Cena will share the screen or the ring together, but based on his current track, either option is equally possible.
“I genuinely think in five years from now, I’m going to be a guy that people see regularly on their TV screen outside of the professional wrestling landscape,” MJF said of his Hollywood future. “Trust me, I love wrestling too much to not still be involved in it. I will most likely still be full-time, but I want to be acting full-time as well by then. I would also like to put out an album by then. I would like to be a well distinguished actor that is recognized as being a great actor that transitioned from wrestling like these greats that did it before me. Like Dwayne, like Batista. Like Cena.”
The Iron Claw is currently in theaters.
