The Iron Claw’s BTS Detail Gives More Meaning To Zac Efron’s Emotional Final Scene

Summary

• Zac Efron was told by director Sean Durkin not to cry while filming The Iron Claw until the very last scene.
• The emotional final scene, which sees Kevin break down watching his sons play together because all of his own brothers are gone, is elevated by the deliberate choice to delay Kevin’s tears.
• Because Fritz Von Erich instilled the belief in his sons that “a man doesn’t cry,” Kevin’s own sons comforting him and letting him cry takes on a deeper meaning in The Iron Claw’s final scene.

One BTS detail about The Iron Claw adds another layer of meaning to Zac Efron’s emotional closing scene. Written and directed by Sean Durkin, The Iron Claw tells the true story of the real-life Von Erich family, who dominated the pro wrestling scene in the ’80s. The Iron Claw chronicles the iconic Von Erich brothers’ rise to fame as wrestlers while also unpacking all of the tragedy the famous family experienced that had folks believing their bloodline was cursed.

In The Iron Claw, Zac Efron plays Kevin Von Erich, the second-eldest and the only one of the six real-life Von Erich brothers still alive today. For this reason, Kevin serves as an anchor throughout the film. Every death in The Iron Claw compounds the sense of loss and devastation Kevin experiences until it finally culminates in the film’s final scene, which has an even deeper meaning than the viewer may realize.

Zac Efron Waiting To Cry Made Kevin’s Ending More Emotional In The Iron Claw

Kevin Von Erich Does Not Cry At All In The Iron Claw Until The Final Scene With His Two Sons

Despite all the tragedy he endures throughout the film, Kevin is never actually seen crying onscreen until the very end of The Iron Claw. In this touching final scene, Kevin’s eyes start welling up as he watches his two young sons, Ross and Marshall, playing together in the backyard. When his sons notice him crying, they comfort him and ask if he “knows why [he’s] sad,” to which Kevin tells them that he “used to be a brother” but now he’s “not a brother anymore.” Ross and Marshall offer to be his brothers and they all share a heartfelt hug.

The Iron Claw’s ending scene is even more emotional, knowing that delaying Kevin’s teary reaction was completely intentional on Durkin’s part.

It’s an incredibly poignant, bittersweet moment that brings all the immense grief and loss in the film to the surface. Seeing Kevin finally break down in tears after losing every last one of his brothers is heartbreaking enough, but The Iron Claw‘s ending scene is even more emotional, knowing that delaying Kevin’s teary reaction was completely intentional on Durkin’s part. The Iron Claw director specifically instructed Efron not to cry until the film’s closing scene, which also happened to be the last scene they shot.

“There were so many moments in the film where his character just wants to cry,” Durkin told The Hollywood Reporter. “I just kept saying to him, ‘No, not now, not here.’ So he was keeping it all in. When we finally got to that final day, he was just full of tears…He had just saved it all up.”

The Deeper Meaning Behind Kevin’s Crying In The Iron Claw

Fritz Von Erich Didn’t Allow Kevin & His Brothers To Cry

The decision to have Efron withhold his tears until the last scene holds a deeper significance because of how Kevin was brought up. Like Durkin said, there were so many moments where it’s clear Kevin wants to cry but doesn’t, demonstrating how deeply he’s been conditioned to hold back his tears by his father. As seen in The Iron Claw, Fritz Von Erich taught his sons to keep their emotions bottled up and never show vulnerability or weakness, even when they’re suffering as a family.

This conditioning comes through in Kevin’s reaction to his sons seeing him cry in The Iron Claw. When Ross and Marshall ask him if he’s okay, Kevin apologizes and asserts that “a man doesn’t cry.“ However, his sons immediately dismiss this absurd notion and give their dad permission to cry, reminding him that “everybody cries” including them. “We cry all the time,” they point out, which seems to make Kevin realize how ridiculous this belief is.

The fact that his own sons made him feel comfortable enough to cry in front of them shows that Kevin is already starting to break the generational cycle of toxic masculinity his father perpetuated by unlearning these unhealthy ideas he’s harbored about being a real man. Because of this, The Iron Claw‘s final scene has more weight: Kevin finally allows himself to cry in a supported environment with his own sons after swallowing his tears the whole movie (not to mention, his whole life).

Source: The Hollywood Reporter