Movies
6 ‘Magic Mike’ Movie Secrets You Probably Didn’t Know
Magic Mike will undoubtedly go down as one of the sexiest movies ever. Loosely inspired by Channing Tatum‘s years as a stripper before he made it big, the film follows Mike (Tatum) as he balances his normal day jobs with his nighttime stripper gig with an all-male revue. The ensemble cast features stripper-in-training The Kid (Alex Pettyfer), strip club head honcho Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), and Mike’s fellow strippers: Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tito (Alex Rodriguez), and Tarzan (Kevin Nash).
The movie was a risk in 2012. Magic Mike was actually an independent film that Tatum and director Steven Soderbergh financed themselves for $7 million. Magic Mike was released on June 29, 2012, and became a summer blockbuster, earning over $167 million at the box office. A 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL, followed, as well as a third film, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, in 2023.
Thirteen years later, Magic Mike still slaps. Scroll down for Magic Mike facts about thongs, songs, and bad blood.
1. James Marsden turned down a role in the film.
The hunky Jury Duty star could have been one of Tatum’s sexy costars. “I didn’t know if I trusted myself to be good enough in this to not have my two dozen lines end up on the editing-room floor. I’d look like a naked extra in this movie,” Marsden told GQ in 2016. “It’s perfect the way it worked out, but that’s one of the only ones I’m like, ‘Hmm.’ I didn’t know it was gonna be the massive success that it was.” The actor also told the Irish Independent that he wasn’t up for the lead role, and he turned down the role due to “scheduling conflicts.”
2. Olivia Munn forgot about her topless scene.
Munn, who played Joanna in the film, appeared topless. For the actress, she was okay with the nudity because it “didn’t feel gratuitous.” She told Vulture, “There are very few directors I would ever do it for. Also, my character was getting out of the shower and to keep it as realistic as possible, I didn’t wear a shirt in the shower. The day of the shoot, I locked it down. I only wanted the people who absolutely had to be there. I even cleared out video village, which you’d normally forget about.”
3. Alex Pettyfer and Channing Tatum did have beef.
It was was reported when the movie was released in 2012 that Pettyfer and Tatum didn’t get along. Pettyfer, who played newbie stripper The Kid, didn’t return for Magic Mike XXL, which only fueled speculation about the feud.
Claudette Barius / Warner Bros. / Everett Collection
In 2015, Pettyfer addressed his dynamic with Tatum in an interview on Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast. The Beastly actor admitted he was “scared to speak” on set because he didn’t want to cause any problems after his prior questionable behavior. “That also gave me a bad rep because they said, ‘Oh Alex thinks he’s f**king better than everybody else because he doesn’t speak to anyone.‘ And that’s not true. I was genuinely nervous and scared to be myself,” he explained.
Pettyfer’s dynamic with Tatum worsened when he began renting an apartment owned by Tatum’s friend in New York. He moved out and broke his lease when he claimed mold and dust allergies were causing breathing issues. He did not pay the four months rent he owed. Pettyfer’s cousin later died after moving out of the apartment. Pettyfer claimed, “I all of a sudden got a very negative email from Channing, rightfully so, saying, ‘Don’t f**k my friends. You owe money. Pay the f**king money. Don’t be a clown.'”
Pettyfer never paid the money back, but looking back, he confessed that he should have. “I should have just paid. I think he was looking for an excuse to not like me,” the actor said.
4. The cast ‘ate like rabbits.’
To keep their ripped physique in check, the Magic Mike cast members were on a regimented diet throughout production. “I can tell you that this cast was so disciplined,” Soderbergh told Collider. “They ate like rabbits. It was lettuce with lemon juice on it.” The director admitted that he had “never seen this kind of diligence.”
5. Matthew McConaughey’s thong was partially ripped off by extras.
McConaughey stressed to The Daily Beast that there was no padding involved in Magic Mike. “All my guys go out there with what God gave us,” he said. The Oscar winner was never completely nude, but he did have a very sexy thong scene that got a little out of hand.
Glen Wilson / Warner Bros. / Everett Collection
“One side did get ripped off [by the extras in the audience],” he revealed. “And I remember that moment, it’s really clear to me. I did feel the chill of the air hit me in some spots that it hadn’t hit me before. As soon as I felt that, I stayed in rhythm, my hand went down, made sure I held the straps up, I cupped it between my legs and stood up and did a body roll out. I stayed on the beat and stayed right on tune, and then just kind of walked out of there, one hand up, one hand down, holding the thong on.”
6. Magic Mike nearly blew its budget on a song.
Ginuwine’s “Pony” got a huge boost when Magic Mike was released, thanks to Tatum’s striptease, but that scene could have been drastically different. “That was such a get, you have no idea. We were so terrified we weren’t going to get it because we had no money to spend on music,” Tatum told GQ.
He added, “We spent almost everything on ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine. ‘Pony’ was a $60,000 song just to use it in that one scene. That’s a lot of money and we’re an independent film. When we made that call and it got cleared, it was such a relief. Because of our budget we thought we couldn’t have big epic music but as a producer, I was freaking out. If you go to a male strip club, they play big, epic music!”
