Lacey Von Erich, daughter of late professional wrestler Kerry Von Erich, has criticized The Iron Claw for its portrayal of her father in the A24 biographical film. Speaking in a preview for an upcoming episode of Hollywood Demons on Investigation Discovery, she said the film left out significant aspects of his personal life.
“My sister and I were not in the movie as my dad’s children and he didn’t have a wife or anything,” she said. “And that was a really big part of my dad. So how he was portrayed in the movie is so inaccurate that it was heart-wrenching.”
Kerry Von Erich, played by Jeremy Allen White, is depicted in the film during a period that includes his motorcycle crash, the resulting foot amputation, his use of painkillers, and his death by suicide in 1993. The film does not mention his wife, Catherine Murray, or their daughters, Hollie and Lacey.
Lacey said the family was not consulted during the film’s development and first learned about it on social media.
Kevin Von Erich, the last surviving brother in the family and portrayed in the film by Zac Efron, agreed with parts of Lacey’s comments. “Kerry in the movie was not a family man, but in real life he was,” Kevin said. He added that he endorsed the film but acknowledged differences between the film’s version of his brother and the man he knew.
The Iron Claw focuses on the Von Erich family, a Texas wrestling dynasty whose members were prominent figures in the sport from the 1960s onward. The film stars Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, and Holt McCallany.
