The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with The Iron Claw star, Maura Tierney. During her Ladies Night interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Tierney revisits her journey from NewsRadio and ER to the highly anticipated A24 film. She also reveals the details of an Iron Claw deleted scene that had a particularly powerful line of dialogue for Doris.

During our Collider Ladies Night interview, Maura Tierney emphasized that the role of Doris in The Iron Claw “was not an easy role,” which is plain to see in the finished product for a multitude of reasons. Not only is the new A24 film based on a staggeringly tragic true story, but, as a supporting actor in the movie, Tierney is also in a position where she must justify a number of a significant choices her character makes within a high-pressure family dynamic with minimal screen time. She does just that in the movie, delivering a performance that’s brimming with effective subtlety and subtext.

The Iron Claw is inspired by the true story of the Von Erich family. They’re Texas professional wrestling royalty with their sights set on rising even higher in the sport, a goal that’s dashed by a string of deeply gut-wrenching personal tragedies.

With The Iron Claw now playing in theaters nationwide, Tierney took the time to join me for a Collider Ladies Night interview to revisit her journey from early unforgettable credits including NewsRadio and ER to joining the cast of one of A24’s most anticipated releases of the year.

The Iron Claw The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports. Release Date December 22, 2023 Runtime 130 minutes

With two Emmy nominations to her name and a slew of widely beloved titles on her filmography, it’s abundantly clear that Tierney is one of the best of the best. But, when asked for the first experience that gave her confidence in her craft, she insisted, “I don’t personally know if it’s safe to just ever say I’m actually good at this.” She continued:

“You’ve got to walk the line right between confidence and stopping being inquisitive. I feel like in a lot of my TV shows, especially ER and then The Affair, I did them for so long. At a certain point, I had to have faith and believe. I think with each successive sort of major character that I played over several seasons, I felt like I knew what I was doing and that gives you a lot of juice to do more. But then I did experimental theater and I had no experience in that, so then I had to learn how to do that, which now I think I’m pretty good at too, but that took a while.”

With that mentality, Tierney’s ability to evolve her craft is boundless, and that also means she’s got great potential when it comes to overcoming challenges as well. Challenges like tackling a recent bout of stage fright.

“I’ve recently weirdly sort of suffered this bout of stage fright — not on stage, but I would just get on set and the words would leave my head. It was definitely weird. I don’t know what things can trigger these things. There would be a panic, like stage fright, so I’m trying to think of the way I got around it. I think I just actually worked harder so that if I was thinking about the lines or whatever I was thinking, there was so much prep that went into it, I would be able to say to myself, ‘There’s no way you can fuck this up. You’re ready.’ And breathing is always a really helpful thing. It’s underrated.”

The Main Reason Maura Tierney Joined the Cast of ‘Iron Claw’
Image via A24

Given Tierney’s interest in remaining inquisitive when working, at the start of the Iron Claw portion of our conversation, I opted to ask her what she thought she’d gain from the role of Doris as an actor continuing to evolve her craft. As Tierney explained, in this case, it was less about the character and more about the opportunity to collaborate with Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest director Sean Durkin.

“I really wanted to work with Sean. That’s the thing, I loved his films. I really jumped at the chance of that. Is the meatiest character? It was the process that I was really drawn to. I wanted to see how he worked. I knew he was shooting it on film. I was really curious about that process, so that’s what mostly drew me to the project.”

While enjoying the experience of working on an independent production with Durkin during which he frequently got creative when capturing key moments via heavy choreography and lengthy oners, Tierney tackled the challenge of tapping into Doris’ complex headspace and experience.

While discussing her greatest strengths and weaknesses, Tierney pinpointed a double edged sword for Doris — her stoicism:

“I think her biggest strength was her stoicism, but ultimately it didn’t serve her. It’s tough to be that stoic but it doesn’t work or last, especially with someone that’s gonna experience that much tragedy. So I think it’s impressive that she had that faith in God and she was going to move on, carry on, do the things for the rest of the kids, but it ended up being, I think, a great weakness. I think she was unhappy for a long time before she made a choice.”

Image via A24

Throughout Iron Claw, there are a number of moments when her sons turn to Doris for help and she fails to act. For example, early on the film, Kevin (Zac Efron) asks her to say something to his father (Holt McCallany) about being too hard on the youngest Von Erich brother, Mike (Stanley Simons). Doris tells Kevin to talk to his siblings instead because, “that’s what your brothers are for.” From a performance perspective, is there any kind of prep or backstory work that can help fill in the gaps and justify such a choice while playing the scene? Here’s how Tierney described it:

“This woman got married when she was 20 and so when you say prep work, it’s like, all she knows is that this guy has to take care of them. I don’t think she’s about to step in and challenge his authority on any level. That was more like the story. It was like she’s afraid. She’s not an abused woman, but she’s not emotionally equipped to interfere with her husband. She can’t handle it.”

Tierney also revealed that there was a particular deleted scene during which Doris flat-out addressed this inability to interfere.

“There’s a scene that didn’t make it into the movie where she says to him, which might be too on the nose which is why it didn’t make it to the final [cut], but she says, ‘You pushed them too hard and I let you do it.’ She cops to it. So that was in there and I don’t know if it maybe wasn’t necessary to have, but it was explained a little bit more.”

While hearing a line like that could have been an immensely powerful beat in the film, Tierney soars in the scenes that did make the final cut, especially during the family meal when Doris revisits Fritz’s interest in music and in a particularly crushing moment with Lily James’ Pam. Whenever Doris is on screen, the pressure is palpable and the unsaid is felt via Tierney’s ability to allow the audience to experience some of Doris’ internal world via stunning performance subtitles.

‘Iron Claw’s Doris Was a Very Challenging Role for Maura Tierney

As of late, I’ve been ending every Collider Ladies Night interview by asking for something the guest accomplished in their recent release that made them proud of themselves. Admittedly, it’s a tough question for many to answer, myself included, but that’s precisely why I’ve been asking it. Here’s what Tierney said when I threw it her way:

“That’s a very interesting question because I was just thinking the other day, ‘When’s the last time I had a job where I was saying that?’ Like, walking home from work going, ‘That was a really good day.’ I don’t know. Iron Claw, it was not an easy role. It was very challenging to me so I don’t know if I ever walked away saying, ‘Nailed that,’ because every day I was internally also struggling with her faith, which was very hard for me to get in touch with because of where I’m at in that world. There’s a reason everyone hates this question. [Laughs]”

Given her description, it’s easy to see why she struggled to recall a moment that sparked max confidence in her work on set, but hopefully in viewing the final product, Tierney can take pride in the work she delivered because she’s often doing exactly what she needs as a member of this ensemble — elevating the script she was given.

Eager to hear more from Tierney on The Iron Claw and other pivotal moments in her career? You can catch our full Collider Ladies Night interview in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the conversation in podcast form below:

The Iron Claw is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes.

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