While wrestling fans are loving The Iron Claw, they’re not as enamoured with the performance of the actor who plays Ric Flair.
While The Iron Claw is earning high marks from critics and viewers alike (with an enviable A-Cinemascore rating), wrestling fans – who mostly love the film – have one issue with it. They don’t like the way wrestling legend Ric Flair was depicted, with many saying he came off as cartoonish. It’s not that Flair is depicted in a negative way; it’s just that fans feel the actor, Aaron Dean Eisenberg, wasn’t able to capture the legendary wrestler’s charisma in a way that makes sense.
“Well, look, what he (director Sean Durkin) should have done is use archival footage of Ric Flair and then have this guy maybe come in and do the mannerisms of Ric Flair in the ring,” said our own Travis Hopson, who gave the film a very positive review but noted that as his only problem with the film. Hopson is a dedicated wrestling fan who thinks that Flair is one of the all-time greatest wrestling showmen. Hopson quickly notes that the actor who plays Flair, Eisenberg, isn’t to blame. “There’s nobody who can capture the showmanship of Ric Flair when he’s on fire… when he’s talking on the microphone. If there’s a Hall of Fame of for talkers on the mic, Ric Flair is in there. And you just can’t find somebody who can match what he can do on the mic. You just can’t.” He noted being at the Dallas premiere (for JoBlo) and feeling like that was the only scene that didn’t quite land. “The second time I watched it, he wasn’t as bad as I remembered. The time it really blew me away was at the world premiere. I could feel in the room that everybody around me felt that it was bad, too. Ric Flair is just not somebody that you can emulate. Like, you can mimic his voice, but you can’t mimic the man.”
Here are some Twiter reactions to the Flair casting:
Hopson notes that the director, Sean Durkin, would have been better off using the original Flair promo and then just having the actor play Flair in the ring. “He’s just such a unique personality. You wouldn’t have somebody come out there and emulate Roddy Piper on the mic. God. It’s bad to even think of somebody doing The Rock… You’d probably just ask The Rock to do it.”
Speaking as only a casual wrestling fan, Eisenberg’s performance didn’t bother me, and it certainly wasn’t enough to keep it from landing on my best movies of the year list. But I’m curious: among our JoBlo readers who are hardcore wrestling fans, who also took issue with the performance? Let us know in the comments.