After a divisive trailer that either tried covering the film’s mediocrity with a Rihanna soundtrack or illustrated a misguided attempt to package something more unconventional, Steven Soderbergh’s film “Magic Mike” at least knows its main selling points well, namely its unbelievably fit leads Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey. And judging from their recent cover story on the film, which features its cast front and center unabashedly strutting their stuff, Entertainment Weekly is keenly aware as well.
While the cast posed for the issue, which goes on sale today, they also took some time to reveal some anecdotes regarding the wild atmosphere present on-set while the male company – which included Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, and Joe Mangianello – were filming. ”Actors, generally, if we finish our scenes early one day, we go home. It wasn’t like that on this set. Especially during the dances—we were there cheering everybody on,” Tatum said, before recounting a memorable experience involving a group of ecstatic extras ripping off McConaughey’s thong mid-strip. “It was a collection of women being like, ‘I have to tip him,’ and then the weight of all the dollar bills in their hands just took [his thong] off.” Luckily, the actor proceeded to remain in character, and finish the scene with only his hands covering his manhood.
The rest of the interview can be read over at EW, along with a brief collection of behind-the-scenes footage but all the raunchy stories and pictures seem to be placeholders for the more emotional, crowd-pleasing aspects that Soderbergh is aiming for. Not that the R-rated film won’t have its bawdy moments, but at times the trailer did evoke Demi Moore’s cringe-worthy self-improvement in “Striptease,” and that’s never a good thing. Test audiences have been eating the film up though, so we’ll remain hopefully cautious when “Magic Mike” opens June 29th. There’s also a very slightly different UK cut of the trailer, which you can watch below, courtesy of HeyUGuys, along with a cunning gif of the EW cover.