Channing Tatum covers a couple of magazines in tandem with the release of the new Magic Mike movie trailer.
It’s a pretty tedious trailer, honestly. It’s too much fremdschämen (frontrum really) in two-minutes. Hopefully the rest of the movie is better, edited properly, with some semblance of cogent storytelling. Because this trailer is really all over the place. It is, as it should be, a porny rags to riches story, but with dudes instead of girls. However… that’s ALL it is. There’s no reading between the lines. Nothing under the surface. It’s shallow; boring even.
The photo shoots promoting the movie are fitting; in line with an audience Tatum admits will be almost entirely women and gay men. He covers OUT Magazine, for whom he does the below interview, and Entertainment Weekly in a fold out where you reveal the other cast members by opening Tatum’s shirt.
On his stripper movie, Magic Mike: “It’s risky. People say that women and the gay community will go see it, knock on wood, but I know straight guys won’t be like, ‘Yo, what’s up man; you wanna go see the stripping movie after the game tonight?’ I doubt they’ll have the balls to see it. What’s funny is that the girls don’t ask me questions about my stripping days, but straight guys want to know everything. It’s that fantasy element. It’s probably why a lot of females on Halloween are the whorey version of a ketchup bottle, or slutty nurse, which I love and respect; it’s liberating.”
On being a stripper in Tampa, FL at the age of 19: “I was definitely looking for something to take me into the dark side,” he says. “You learn something about yourself, you learn about men, women, you see a lot of depressing shit, people that are lost. But at the same time, the dark side can be exciting. It can feel like you’re cheating death every night.”
On baring almost all for the job: “I never enjoyed the taking the clothes off part. You are on a stage with people yelling at you, and you feel you’re a rock star, but you’re nothing ; you’re just a guy taking off his clothes, looking like a fool in a stupid outfit.”
On his acting career: “I’ve been acting for eight years now, and I feel I’m just starting to understand things. As soon as you think you’re the s**t, you’ll find 100 people that will point at you and laugh. I don’t ever want to be that person; I want to keep finding people I can learn from. That’s my entire journey in life.”
On being picky with food: “I will never eat a raw tomato. I can do the s**t out of some tomato sauce, or even sun-dried tomatoes, but never raw.” Eggplant? “F**k eggplant; it’s too spongy. I hate spongy stuff.”
On being a redneck at heart: “I wish I had a palate to be able to choose one over the other,” he says. “I’m a redneck; I still love Coors Light.” - via OUT Magazine.
