14 DAY TRIAL // It’s only been a month since Michael Strahan confirmed that he would be appearing in the sequel to “Magic Mike,” called “Magic Mike XXL,” and he’s already on set shooting scenes with co-star Channing Tatum, as the Instagram photo available below can confirm.
He’s not just shooting scenes: he seems to have gotten in excellent physical shape for the role as well, though we assume he was fit before. After all, he is a former athlete: he couldn’t have been in such a bad shape to begin with.
Strahan joins original members of the cast, new additions
“Magic Mike XXL” promises to be an even bigger affair than the original, with more dirty dance routines, more humor, more eccentricities, and above all, more A-listers added to the cast.
Strahan is just one of the latest additions to the cast, originally comprised by Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Alex Pettyfer, and Tatum himself. McConaughey is the only one who isn’t returning, amid talk that he’s now seeing himself as an “Oscar winner,” and as such, it’s somehow beneath him to do movies about male exotic dancers.
Luckily, others were eager to jump at the chance to appear in it, including Amber Heard, Donald Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Elizabeth Banks, and Andie MacDowell. And Strahan, who hasn’t stopped gushing about his new gig since he got it – and he would often joke about it before, though he claims it wasn’t because he was trying to land it.
Preparing for the role
As you can see in the photo, Strahan got a ripped physique for the part, with help from celebrity fitness expert Latreal “La” Mitchell. Even Channing seems impressed by what he’s seeing and considering that he too is pretty ripped, that’s saying a lot.
Another aspect that Strahan probably didn’t include in his considerations of the role is how objectified he would feel on set, as he says in the video below.
“The way they were looking at me: Men, you better not look at women in that way ever again, because it's uncomfortable,” he told his co-host Kelly Rippa. “So uncomfortable! I don't know how women wear bikinis around. After every take, I was like, ‘Give me my little tearaway underwear please’.”
Pressed for details, he admits that the film won’t be X-rated in the least: some skin will be shown on camera because of the subject matter, but most of the racy scenes will be implicit. The same applied to the original, where the most outrageous behavior actually occurred off-screen, in the mind of the viewer.
OKAY @michaelstrahan! Look at this behind the scenes photo of him (and @channingtatum from the "Magic Mike XXL" set. A photo posted by Good Morning America (@goodmorningamerica) on Oct 10, 2014 at 5:31am PDT