INTERVIEW: CHANNING TATUM & JOE MANGANIELLO ON “MAGIC MIKE”
A year ago, a few eyebrows might’ve been raised with the talk of there being a Steven Soderbergh Male Stripper Film in development. Magic Mike as that Film now is known, will soon be revealed – pardon the pun – amidst the 2012 Summer rush of Blockbusters. I mean, we’ve all heard of 1995’s delicious and unintentionally-laughable Showgirls, but much still is left to be accomplished in Films of the ever-tricky Stripping genre. Stars Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello (pronounced with a hard “g”) both arrived in Toronto today for the Canadian leg of Magic Mike‘s Press Tour.
The Dramedy brings together Tatum and Soderbergh a second time, after having seen the release earlier this year of Mixed Martial Arts-inspired Action Flick Haywire. This time around, the Action we see is of a whole different variety – the variety which surely you might have seen in that Clip on the Internet of Tatum gyrating onstage back in his pre-Actor days as a Stripper. You know you clicked “refresh” on that. Don’t lie.
Magic Mike follows a Man in his 30s (Tatum) who is at a turning point in his life after making quick cash – and stacks of it – as a Stripper. Although he is successful at what he does, we soon begin to see the repercussions of this choice on his love life and ability to achieve his own dreams as an Entrepreneur. Along the way, we get to know a mix of Characters in his all-male Dance Revue. We meet the Mastermind behind it all Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), Ken (Matt Bomer), Big Dick Richie (Mangniello) and Newcomer The Kid (Alex Pettyfer). Matters become complicated when Mike falls for Paige (Cody Horn – Daughter of Warner Bros. President Alan F. Horn), who happens to be The Kid‘s grounded Older Sister.
On Horn‘s Character, Paige, Tatum reveals that her early beginnings in the Film actually are based on his own real-life Sister of the same name. “She’s a beautiful, strong-willed Woman”, he tells us. “I didn’t have to get my Boys when I got into a fight in the neighbourhood. I’d be like ‘Yo! Let me go get my Sister!’, drawing laughs from the intimate group of Journalists – some unable to contain their excitement for him. “Huge Fan here”, one admits to him.