Zac Efron recalls the challenges of playing a wrestler in 'The Iron Claw' on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: On the December 15 episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live', Zac Efron talked about his role in 'The Iron Claw' as Kevin von Eric, the famous American professional wrestler, how he gained muscle for the film and meeting the real Kevin at the premiere.

Efron also recalled the physical challenges of doing repeated takes for the movie and a funny mishap that occurred during the live production of 'Peter Pan' when he was 13 years old.

Efron talks about meeting the real-life Kevin Von Eric

Kimmel began the interview, announcing, "Our first guest tonight is a talented former teen heartthrob now adult heartthrob who squeezes into spandex in the new movie The Iron Claw."

During the show, Efron shared that he did a lot of push-ups to play the part of a wrestler for the movie and also mentioned that the real Kevin von Eric, who is the sole survivor of the real-life Eric family, enjoyed the movie.

On Kimmel asking, "Has he seen the movie?"

Efron replied, "He has. He loved it. He loved it!" and added, "Which meant just everything to me man."

Kimmel then stated, "I bet were you sitting there watching him while he watched the movie?" but Efrom denies it with a laugh, saying, "No no that would have been weird man it was awkward enough just sitting knowing he was in the room but, yeah naturally when you're playing somebody real it's like that's the first thing you think of is what are they going to think of this."

Efron mentioned that the real-life Kevin von Eric "was there with his whole family" at the Dallas premier.  

Efron described the experience of filming wrestling scenes in the movie, which included long takes with real wrestling fans in the audience, and the feeling of uncertainty when the scene would be finished.

Elaborating on the predicament, Efron said, "You're standing there looking around in your underwear and you're oiled up and honestly trying to figure out what to do after they call cut."

Jimmy Kimmel asks Zac Efron about his 'first real show' 

Speaking of his experience working on 'The Iron Claw', Efron reflected on his past experiences in live performances. While filming 'The Iron Claw', Efron found it awkward and physically demanding doing repeated takes for a scene.

He said, "It was weird and it's physically demanding also having to do those takes over and over again I would think because the wrestlers do it once, and if they screw it up they just try again."

Kimmel then asked, "You've been doing live performances though since you were a little kid, right? What was your first real show?"

He revealed that one of the earlier shows he did was a professional production of 'Peter Pan' at the Allen Hancock College, when he was 13.

He recalled a funny incident that happened during one such show and said, "We had the Christmas show which was pretty big but to be a kid in one of those shows is a big deal"

He continued, "There are only a couple of young people in it. It's all college students, good actors. We had fly lines, so they would pick us up into the air and fly us over the audience."

He said that the show involved flying lines, and during one performance, an elderly woman in the audience, held onto his brother's teddy bear that had dropped, and refused to let go, causing him to be pulled into the air and inadvertently grab her wig instead of the bear.

Efron shares these stories with a sense of humor while expressing gratitude for the opportunities he has had throughout his career

At the end of the show, Efron also expressed his excitement for the holiday season, looking forward to family time, working out, cookies, and Christmas shopping for his siblings.