STACK #223 May 2023

MOVIE FEATURE

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SIZE DOESN’T MATTER Steven Soderbergh has been making films in Hollywood for three decades. He first arrived on the scene with the notorious Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) and would go on to direct an astounding 33 films. And although he’s earned accolades for titles like Traffic (2000), Erin Brockovich (2000), and Ocean’s Eleven (2001), he's proven that big productions aren’t everything; the auteur has also mastered the art of the low-budget gem, with audacious films like Full Frontal (2002), Bubble (2005), and Unsane (2018).

ChanningTatum hits the stage for one final tease in Magic Mike’s Last Dance . Words Gill Pringle ONE LAST DANCE

DYK?

his 40s, he’s still in Miami working as a bartender, although he’s retired from stripping. He decides to take to the stage again for what he hopes will be one last hurrah, heading to London with Hayek Pinault’s wealthy socialite, Maxandra, who lures him with an offer he can’t refuse... and an agenda

Thandiwe Newton filmed for 11 days before exiting the project for family reasons.

C hanning Tatum first shimmied his way into our hearts 17 years ago in the dance drama Step Up . Going on to prove his moves weren’t just reserved for the dance floor, he's since demonstrated his golden touch across action, drama, and comedy. But he can never resist the siren call of a good dance beat, a predilection which saw him teaming with director Steven Soderbergh a full ten years ago, to produce and star in Magic Mike . The sexy, comedy - starring Tatum as a male stripper who coaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money - was a critical and commercial sensation. Loosely based on Tatum’s own experiences as a teenage stripper in Tampa, Florida, it was easy for him to fill Magic Mike’s shoes, strutting his booty for the ladies. A sequel - Magic Mike XXL , directed by Gregory Jacobs - followed in 2015, before Soderbergh and Tatum decided to reunite for a final film in the trilogy: Magic Mike’s Last Dance . “The first movie was about Mike realising, ‘I need to figure out what I’m doing with my life.’ The second one put these guys on a pedestal and let them flesh out their characters, but it was still really about these men,” says Tatum, who, at 42 years old, has lost none of his moves.

“Since then, women in films have become more open, more conversational about what they want, and

She was replaced by Salma Hayek Pinault.

we’d also created the live show. What we learned made us want to make this third movie, and to really

all of her own. Hayek Pinault was excited to sign on as

redesign what Magic Mike is. We wanted to put the best dancers in the world in the movie, and have a strong female lead who is pivotal to the story, and as important as Mike in the plot,” he says. That female lead is played by 56-year-old Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominated Mexican-American icon, Salma Hayek Pinault. In this new instalment, “Magic” Mike Lane has lost his furniture business during the pandemic, and finds himself broke. Now in

Mike’s unexpected love interest. “Maxandra meets Mike in a moment where she, too, feels a little bit lost,” she explains. ”It happens out of the blue, and she does something out of character, ‘Just once,’ she thinks, because she’s going through so much in her life. “But something happens to her, and she gets inspired by him; he reminds her of a part of her she had lost, and he gives her the strength to explore another side of herself,” says the sultry actress. Director Soderbergh was impressed by the chemistry between Tatum and Hayek Pinault from the beginning: “There's an early scene, when Mike and Max first meet,” he

says. “They still have their clothes on, but Channing and Salma made it very

sensual. In American cinema, it’s not exactly typical to find that level of sensuality and eroticism in a film without being explicit. But they really conveyed it beautifully.”

• Magic Mike's Last Dance is out on May 10

32 MAY 2023

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