Interview: Cazzey Cereghino, actor, The Iron Claw

On December 22, The Iron Claw, starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson hits theaters.

While a lot has been made of the body transformations of Efron and the other actors portraying the Von Erich brothers, there are a ton of other smaller roles in the film portraying famous wrestlers. From The Sheik and Harley Race to Ric Flair, there are a lot of pro wrestlers featured in the film. Another pro wrestler shown in the film is the late-Bruiser Brody, who is portrayed by Cazzey Cereghino.

Stuntman, actor, author and musician, Cereghino does a lot of different things, but, as he says, acting is how he pays his bills.

“I’ve played a lot of pro wrestlers in the past, given my look,” Cereghino said. “I’m used to playing a lot of bad guys, crashing motorcycles or getting beat up. I had the good fortune of looking kind of like Bruiser Brody.”

Cereghino said he was a bit concerned at first because Brody was 6’8 and he’s 6’2 with shoes on.

“I didn’t know how I was going to pull that off,” he admitted. “I guess if you look at the Von Erich’s, they are about 6’1 and Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White about 5’8. A lot of it is movie magic.”

That movie magic basically recreated the Sportatorium, the location made famous by the Von Erich family, along with the wrestlers who performed in it, night in and night out.

Cereghino did know of Bruiser Brody prior to taking the role, but also did some research on him before shooting began.

“He was a little bit before my time,” he said. “I knew who he and knew he was someone who was really big to Sean, the writer and director. He wanted to write some legendary characters into the project, other than the Von Erich’s.”

In the film, there are several scenes where the wrestlers take pretty substantial bumps, either falling to the floor, jumping on one other, or falling onto the ring from the top rope. All these required stunt men and a higher level of physicality than some of the actors may have been used to.

Cereghino said he felt his stunt background gave him a bit of advantage over some of the actors.

“I would say it gave me a big advantage of a typical actor,” he said. “Most of the wrestlers in the movie, including the stunt doubles are real wrestlers. Some of them are current wrestlers. We had some good stunt choreographers that are big in the wrestling world as well.

Much like professional wrestling, Cereghino said that stunt work is a work of art as well.

“A stunt scene is a dance and you’re learning choreography with other people in the fight with you,” he said. “Each step along the way is like a dance. If you mess up on a dance, well, then you kind of have to follow along. The difference is that in the stunt world, if you mess up, you might get yourself hurt.”

In the film, Cereghino said his part isn’t very large, as a lot of it ended up on the cutting room floor.

“We wrestled multiple matches, but they didn’t keep a lot of it, otherwise it would have ended up a 6-hour movie,” he said.

One of the things being talked about with the film is the physical transformation that Efron and the other actors had to make to portray the Von Erich’s. Cereghino shed a little light on the transformation that actors had to make.

“They were around the clock in the days I worked with them,” he said. “They had trainers following them around saying alright this is time for you to eat this or this is time for you to take this supplement. It wasn’t just a transformation, they had to make a total lifestyle change, even months before shooting started. Kudos to those guys for really making the sacrifice for the roles.”

One thing that’s different about the stunt world as compared to the acting world is that while no one may be able to replace a lead actor, a stunt man is replaceable.

“If you get hurt, they will find someone who looks like you to replace you,” Cereghino said. “If the actor gets hurt, they may have to shut the project down.”

Cereghino also said that at times some of the actors were frustrated because they wanted to do more, but insurance issues would not allow them to do certain stunts..

“Sometimes you want to do the stunt because they are fun, but if the actor gets hurt then there are 400 people out of work because you broke your arm,” he said.

While some moviegoers may not think the film is for them if they are not wrestling fans, Cereghino admitted it’s really not a film about wrestling, but, rather about family.

“It is a family drama,” he said. “That’s the first thing I talked to Kevin (Von Erich) and Kerry’s daughters about. You have to think that Fritz and his wife lost 5 of 6 children and the oldest only lived to be 32. You have 6 children, and you outlive 5 of them, that’s a horrible thing for any parent to experience. The worst thing in the world is to bury one of your children, let alone all of them.”

Despite the loss of 5 of her sons, Cereghino said Kevin and Kerry’s daughters said, their grandmother was always upbeat and smiling.

“They said she was the happiest person you ever met,” he said. “She was a woman of incredible faith. The girls said she would make cookies with them and always in a good mood. I’m thinking, really? How many people, if they lost 5 of their 6 children would be like Fritz in the movie, thinking God has cursed him? I think that to me was a bigger story than the wrestling. This is a very close-knit family, and the brothers were best friends. They were best buddies.”

The Iron Claw opens in theaters on December 22.