The Iron Claw Director Reveals How They Cast Ric Flair

The Iron Claw tells the dark story of the Von Erich Family, one the most prominent names in wrestling during the heyday of the National Wrestling Alliance throughout the 1970s, to the dominance of the WWF in the 1980s. To cover that span of history, The Iron Claw has to feature some iconic names in wrestling as characters in the film – and there is no bigger cameo in the film than that of Ric Flair! 

If you don’t know anything about Ric Flair’s career, the iconic wrestler had a major career bump in the mid-to-late-1970s when he made the jump from the American Wrestling Association (AWA) to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Flair became an instrumental figure in the ongoing story of the Von Erich brothers – culminating in Flair giving up the NWA  World Heavyweight Championship title to Kerry Von Erich in 1984, at the 1st Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions, held in honor of the late Von Erich brother, David, who died of internal injuries while in Japan for a show. 

Kerry Von Erich’s match with Ric Flair is a moment that is both iconic and pivotal, making it crucial for The Iron Claw to get it right. Ric Flair shows up several times in the film, in fact, for action sequences inside the ring, and comedic/dramatic moments outside of it. Rick Flair is one of the biggest icons in sports entertainment – and a person who is very much still alive and active in the public eye. Besides the crucial challenge of casting the Von Erich family, The Iron Claw director Sean Durkin and his team had to nail the casting of Ric Flair. 

Who Plays Ric Flair In The Iron Claw?

The Iron Claw casts actor Aaron Dean Eisenberg as Rick Flair; Eisenberg is best known for playing AIDS-afflicted actor “Todd Lang” in HBO’s period drama about the 1970s-1980s NYC, The Deuce. When talking to ComicBook.com at The Iron Claw press junket, Sean Durkin explained that understanding the character of Ric Flair wasn’t hard – the challenge was finding someone who could embody it: 

“It was hard to cast in terms of ‘How am I ever going to get someone to play Ric Flair?’ But it wasn’t, because I knew who the person [Flair] was. Aaron Dean Eisenberg – who plays Ric Flair in the movie – I’d done a show with him called Dead Ringers. And he came in and did an episode for me and was just incredible and just had this wildness to him and I just had this idea. So I called him at one point and I said ‘Would you do me a favor? It’s quite a small role, but uh, you know, it’s Ric Flair [laughs]. And he was like “Absolutely!” And he actually really trained and bulked up and really went for it. Yeah. It was amazing.”

The Iron Claw Video Review

The Iron Claw is now in theaters.