Ab fab the sequel
Strutting their stuff in Magic Mike XXL
Personally, Joe Manganiello couldn’t be happier with his engagement to Modern Family’s sexy Sofia Vergara.
Professionally, he’s on the verge of making the transition from the TV zone into the cinema world thanks to the Magic Mike movies.
“I have been at this for 22 years and it seems like I am just getting to the starting point in terms of film,” said the 38-year-old promoting Magic Mike XXL with the rest of the cast.
Manganiello reprises his role of Big Dick Richie who joins Magic Mike (Channing Tatum), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tarzan (Kevin Nash) and Tito (Adam Rodriguez) along with sidekick Tobias (Gabriel Iglesias) on a road trip.
The second movie continues to be loosely based on Tatum’s experiences as an 18-year-old Tampa stripper but it’s not quite as earnest this time; the Kings of Tampa head to a Myrtle Beach male strippers’ convention for one last dance fling.
The new production contains more dance routines, less brooding and all kinds of fooling around as the co-stars take centre stage.
“It’s such a unique franchise because the first film and the second film are so different from each other but they exist in the same universe,” Manganiello says. “This is a straightforward comedy and we didn’t have to apologize for making a male stripper movie anymore.”
The actor has more to say this time, too, and more to do, including an impromptu striptease at a Mini Mart when Big Dick Richie tries out some new moves. “C’mon, it’s great,” he said. “There are so many props in a Mini Mart.”
If his drama teacher could see him now: The Pittsburgh native attended the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama where he met friend Bomer, who plays Ken in the Magic Mike movies.
After graduating, Manganiello moved to L.A. and promptly won the role of Spider-Man nemesis Flash Thompson in 2002’s Spider-Man but things have been hit and miss in the last two decades.
He did manage to improve his profile with recurring roles on ER, One Tree Hill and most famously as the brunch-loving Brad on How I Met Your Mother, not to mention the vampire Alcide Herveaux on True Blood.
OK, so Manganiello and Bomer weren’t exactly classically trained thespians but they did get a chuckle sometimes on the Magic Mike XXL set.
Take, for instance, Manganiello’s Mini Mart sequence.
“Seeing the culmination of all those years (of theatre training) come to fruition in that moment was so mind-blowing and epic,” Bomer says. “I just stood behind the camera wanting popcorn and carbohydrates and just thanking God.”
Up to the self-deprecation challenge, Manganiello recalled another scene at the beginning of the film when they trick Magic Mike into joining their road trip party.
“I’ve known Matt since he was 18 and we did come up through drama school,” he said.
“We’ve done Shaw and Chekhov and Shakespeare, and all of that, to come up to this moment in my career where scene one, take one: Joe gets naked and cannon-balls Channing into a pool — crowning achievement.”