Maura Tierney makes a good point, she usually does play “warm” characters. Which is why her turn as Doris Von Erich in Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw is so striking. In real life, Doris Von Erich went through so many tragedies with her children — the movie literally leaves one of them out. (Which is Chris Von Erich, the youngest brother. The movie basically combines Mike Von Erich and Chris Von Erich into one character.) Tragedy after tragedy, Doris Von Erich keeps her emotions in check, choosing instead to keep the family moving forward. Not showing emotion seems a bit counterintuitive for an actor, which speaks to how great Tierney’s performance is here – up until the point even Doris Von Erich can’t pretend anymore.
Speaking to Maura Tierney, she has a very dry, straight-to-the-point wit about her. Also, it’s notable Tierney might be the only person alive who has been in two “Claw” movies, between The Iron Claw and 1997’s Liar Liar, which features a running joke about the claw. This was not lost on Tierney while filming and certainly wasn’t lost on the Von Erich family.
Maura Tierney: How are you?
No complaints. How are you?
I’m pretty good. Same here.
See, that’s probably a better answer than no complaints.
No, I think no complaints is just fine. You’ve got no complaints. You didn’t say “fabulous.”
Right, I’m fabulous.
You said no complaints. Okay. Yes. How can I help you?
You are probably the only person alive who is in two movies about “The Claw.”
I know. There were a bunch of the actual family – the Von Erich, which their actual name is Adkisson – I think she’s Kevin’s niece and I think she is Kerry’s daughter, she said, “Oh my God. It’s so funny. We love Liar Liar because The Claw was such a big part of our family. And then The Claw was in that movie.” Her kids were there. It was really funny.
Wow.
I know.
I love that scene when you try to do it.
That’s the thing, I’m bad.
It was on cable recently… well, to be honest it’s on cable every day, so I’ve probably seen it every day.
Actually, it’s crazy to me. Well, I think it’s a really funny movie and people still watch it, because kids recognize me from it and it’s 30 years old. I just think it has an audience. It really does have an audience,
Of all the things you’ve done, that’s the thing kids know you for?
Yes. It’s very weird to me. Yes. Of all the things I’ve done, they’ll say, “Are you in Liar Liar?” First of all, “Well, I don’t really look like that anymore, but yes, that was me.”
There are worse things to be recognized for.
Yeah, I think it’s nice. It lasts. Holds up. But yes, two movies about the Claw.
How much did you know about this family before you got involved in this?
I knew nothing. Many, many journalists that I’ve talked to in the past couple of days are like, “I grew up a huge wrestling fan.” I just didn’t know anything about them or wrestling at all until I read the script. I also thought wrestling was totally fake, which it’s not.
In the sense that you can actually get hurt.
Yeah. There’s a tremendous amount of athleticism involved. I just came away with a lot of respect for it, because I didn’t realize how hard they worked in the ring. Then you also have to promote yourself. It’s showbiz as well. I just didn’t know anything about that world, so I learned a lot about it during the movie.
We’re probably closer to the same page than most of the people you’re talking to. I was faintly aware of them. I watched WWF and that’s about it, but kids at school would talk about them.
Actually, me too. My little brother, I have a brother who’s 13 years younger than me, and I’d watch Hulk Hogan with him, but I didn’t know anything about that.
Yeah, the kids would be like, “Oh, Hulk Hogan, that’s for the mainstream but if you really want to get into it, it’s the Von Erichs.”
You know who was a kid like that — Sean Durkin? That’s why he made this movie. He was a super geeked-out wrestling fan. Super-duper geeked out. Don’t tell him I said geeked out. This world deeply informed him somehow. Well, he’ll tell you, he’d get bootleg DVDs of the Von Erichs in London. I don’t know. It really did work some magic on him somehow. His other films aren’t like this.
No, they’re not.
And I love his movies. Which is why I did this movie, I wanted to work with him.
I love Martha Marcy… I always say it wrong…
I’m telling you, he’s really interesting to work with and fun, because he knows exactly what he wants to do, but he’s also flexible and your input does count. Which is the best kind of director who’s completely assured, but has a sense of humor and can be flexible if shit goes wrong on set, things happen. You have to change and adapt.
So how did this happen? Did he call you?
I think he reached out to me, yes. I had a Zoom, I think, and talked with him, and then I did the job. I’ve loved that first movie, it made a huge impression on me. I also always get the title wrong. It was very affecting, I thought. I love The Nest. I just think he’s interesting. He’s really unique.
Martha Marcy May Marlene, I said it right.
Did you Google it?
Yes.
Okay.
I can’t even imagine trying to get in Doris’s head. Because most stories that deal with this kind of tragedy, it happens once and that’s horrific enough. In this movie, it happens so many times one of them is literally just not even mentioned.
Exactly. The one thing about playing her is, the boys had tons of footage, there were documentaries made about them, they had a lot of material to research. Doris is not really, she’s not well-documented. She actually was a little more involved than the movie portrays. It was a family business and she would play a part in some of the promotions and stuff. She was more involved than the movie depicts, I believe.
Was she calling shots behind the scenes?
In their culture at that time, young women, deeply religious women, were not encouraged, I don’t think, to be the boss. And I don’t think she was. And then nobody really taught anybody how to express their grief. She loses one child and she just kept moving on for the rest of the kids and her family. And then she kept losing them, and it’s really unfathomable.
So how do you play that?
Sean encouraged all of us to be very stoic. We would say, “How much emotion do you want to see in this scene?” And he’d be like, “None.” We see it once with Doris. That was the one scene that Sean was like, “This is the scene where she could be sad.” He managed. He orchestrated when grief was expressed, so that was helpful. Because otherwise, I don’t know, I really don’t know how that woman kept on.
What you said is interesting, because as an actor I assume your instinct is to show emotion?
Again, that was a directorial decision, which I really agree with. I don’t normally play people who are not warm. I’m usually hired to be whatever I bring to a part, so that part was interesting to me. There were certain things that were cut for a time and I totally understood.
I really like this movie a lot, but part of me thinks this could also be a 10-episode series, because there’s so much.
Yep! Also, like you said, there are two children’s deaths that the movie doesn’t focus on. She’s lost a child before we even meet that couple, they already lost the kids. It’s a wild story.
Usually, it’s the other way, adding some drama to kind of spice up the movie. And this one takes some out because it’s too much.
Exactly. It’s like, oh, that one lost his foot in a motorcycle accident. What?
It’s interesting when you said you usually play warm characters. I think that’s why I enjoyed you so much in this, it’s very different.
Yeah. Zac, three times I would show up for the Q&A, and he’d be standing next to me, and I’m like, “Zac, it’s me.” I do think it was different for me. He kept going, “Geez, I’m sorry. You just don’t look the same.”
“Hey, I have emotions to share now that I’m not playing your mother.”
Exactly. Also, I don’t know, I wore normal clothes in real life.
You’re in the new Twister, is this true?
Yeah, but not really. But I am. My publicist is going to be mad at me. I am. Again, that was a situation where I really wanted to work with the director a lot. I worked three or four days on that film. I think it’s going to be great.
Oh, I can’t wait.
I think it’s going to be awesome, but I don’t have a substantial role in that. But I am excited to see it.
Also, more people should have seen The Report.
I love that movie.
I try to look for strategy or patterns in film roles, and I’m doing that here, too, with your recent filmography. But I already know the answer is, “Just looking for good roles.”
Yeah, I think it’s not true. I think I mostly work in television, so it’s nice to work on a film because it’s different. Yeah. There’s no real strategy on my part. I’m very director-driven. For me, it wasn’t sort of whatever came along. It was it came along and it was Sean. That’s something I would want to do and learn about the way he works. So, it’s not really a plan.
Obviously, your television work is great. I was in college when News Radio was on and it’s one of my favorite shows of all time. Obviously, loved you on ER. But I also, I love it when you’re in movies. Selfishly, I like watching you play all these different characters in movies and I hope you do more.
I’ve been doing this TV show that not a lot of people saw, and we did two seasons of it. I’ve been in Pittsburgh shooting this TV show called Rust. I don’t know if you know.
I know that show, yes.
It’s what that is. It’s weird, because I have been working but it feels to me like it hasn’t been out there. In a way, I feel like I want to work, even though I’ve been working. I guess I’m in an interesting spot. We’ll see. Then there was Covid and then there was a strike. I’m excited about whatever, when we actually really start to work again.
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