Zac Efron could pin down an Oscar nomination for ‘The Iron Claw’

“The Iron Claw” is set to be A24’s latest high-profile hit with the true-life story already generating buzz and anticipation. The movie follows the story of the Von Erich brothers, who made a wrestling dynasty that reached the height of its success in the 1980s. However, while the family found success inside the ring, they had to deal with a string of tragedies outside the ring.

“The Iron Claw,” which is out in the USA on December 22, marks Sean Durkin‘s third feature film as a writer-director after “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “The Nest.” Joining him on this venture is a stellar cast headed up by Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White but also featuring Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, and Lily James. Efron portrays Kevin Von Erich, Allen White is Kerry Von Erich, and Dickinson features as David Von Erich. The movie could be an Oscar vehicle for a number of its stars, not least Efron.

The actor shot to fame in the noughties with his role in the “High School Musical” movies and has since featured in plenty of comedies befitting his natural charisma and charm including “17 Again,” “Neighbors,” and “Dirty Grandpa.” However, a closer look at his filmography will reveal an actor who can deliver the goods in dramas, too, suggesting that this role in “The Iron Claw” could be the culmination of a string of dramas underlying Efron’s true talents. He appeared in Lee Daniels‘ crime drama “The Paperboy” before featuring in the acclaimed comedy-drama “The Disaster Artist.” That same year, he starred opposite Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in the smash hit “The Greatest Showman” while his most dramatic turn came a year later when he played Ted Bundy in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.”

Efron used that aforementioned charisma to portray the infamous serial killer in this film and pulled the role off with aplomb. He wielded his movie star chart to subversive effect, producing a performance that made a lot of audience members sit up and take more notice of Efron’s talents. He also appeared in the survival thriller “Gold” and “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” a biographical drama from Oscar-winning “Green Book” director Peter Farrelly.

These excerpts from Efron’s filmography paint a picture of an actor subtly switching up his career in the same way that Matthew McConaughey did. McConaughey swapped the light-hearted com-coms for indie dramas such as “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Killer Joe,” “Mud,” “Magic Mike,” and, coincidentally, “The Paper Boy.” This reinvention alerted the industry and audiences to his true talents and culminated in an Oscar win for Best Actor in 2014 for “Dallas Buyers Club.” Efron could be utilizing this career strategy switch up himself. Could “The Iron Claw” be his “Dallas Buyers Club?”

The role is also a transformative one, as was McConaughey’s. Efron is unrecognizable here. He undertook a grueling regime to get into the right shape for this role — packing on the pounds and muscle to play the wrestler with convincing physicality. This transformative aspect, wherein an actor trains to procure a specific look for a certain character, is typical of past Oscar nominees in this category, including 2015 nominee Bradley Cooper (“American Sniper”), 2014 nominee Christian Bale (“American Hustle”), and 2009 nominee Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”).

Our five predicted nominees for Best Actor are: Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Cooper (“Maestro”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), and Colman Domingo (“Rustin”). However, while Murphy, DiCaprio, and Cooper feel like locks, Giamatti and Domingo feel a little more on the precipice with the likes of Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”), Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”), Joaquin Phoenix (“Napoleon”), and Efron waiting in the wings to take their spots.

It could well happen, particularly as we know academy voters like to reward actors who undergo reinventions or embark on something of a career renaissance. McConaughey was one beneficiary of that phenomenon while Laura Dern was another. She won Best Supporting Actress in 202 for “Marriage Story.” Brendan Fraser won Best Actor earlier this year with “The  Whale” after he enjoyed a career renaissance while Jonah Hill‘s switch from comedies to dramas led to him reaping a Supporting Actor bid in 2012 for “Moneyball.” Similarly, Steve Carell‘s 2015 Best Actor bid for “Foxcatcher” came after he shifted from comedies to dramas, too. In fact, “Foxcatcher” is another tragic true story about wrestling. This seems to be a subject the academy is interested in and “The Iron Claw” very much occupies that same space. Mickey Rourke was also nominated for Best Actor for playing a wrestler in “The Wrestler” in 2009 but that one was a fictional work.

Sports movies always tend to do well in this category, however, regardless of whether they are based on true stories or not. Will Smith won in 2022 for “King Richard,” Brad Pitt was nominated in 2012 for “Moneyball,” Morgan Freeman was nominated in 2010 for “Invictus,” Rourke was nominated in 2009 for “The Wrestler,” and Clint Eastwood was nominated in 2005 for “Million Dollar Baby.”

“Slap the stud” has long been a famous Oscar phenomenon. This is when voters don’t award wins to young, handsome, leading men. However, these types of actors do get nominated a lot. Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) and Austin Butler (“Elvis”) were both nominated earlier this year, Andrew Garfield was nominated in 2022 for “Tick, Tick… Boom!,” Steven Yeun (“Minari”) and Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) were nominated in 2021, and Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name”) and Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”) were both nominated in 2018.

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