Although White is a well-respected actor who’s more than capable of handling the emotional material in “The Iron Claw,” his height was one potential downside to casting him in the role. The real Kerry Von Erich was 6’2″, whereas White is 5’7″. White can capture Von Erich’s demeanor perfectly well, but he’ll simply never be able to make Schwarzenegger look small.
The movie’s solution to this has been to fill the rest of the cast with actors who are also much shorter than their real-life counterparts. Zac Efron, who plays 6’2” Kevin Von Erich, is only 5’8″. Harris Dickinson, who plays the 6’8″ David Von Erich, is only 6’2″. They also cast the 5’3″ Maura Tierney as the family matriarch Doris; there’s little official record on exactly how tall Doris was, but photos from the time place her in the 5’8″ to 5’10” range. It seems like every actor in this movie is around six to seven inches shorter than their real-life counterparts; as long as no actual 6’8″ actors show up on screen, this shouldn’t be an issue.
The only major exception to the rule is Stanley Simons, a 6’2″ actor who plays the 6’2″ Mike Von Erich. How does “The Iron Claw” deal with 6’2″ Simons and 5’7″ White being in the same scene together, despite them playing brothers who are supposed to be the same height? It basically chooses to ignore this particular detail and simply establish that fictional Mike is a lot taller than fictional Kerry; it’s a reasonable adaptive flourish, considering it’s Kevin, Kerry, and David the movie focuses on most. Those three were the main iconic wrestling trio of the family; as long as the movie got their height differences correct, it was in the clear.
