Channing Tatum on the Female Perspective in ‘Magic Mike 3’ and Why Training for His Role Is “Unhealthy”

Channing Tatum spoke about the reality of training for the Magic Mike movies and why it was time for the franchise to add a female equal to his character Mike Lane.

While visiting The Kelly Clarkson Show, a photo of the Dog star and director as Lane appeared on the screen behind host Clarkson. “That might be the reason why I didn’t want to do a third one because I have to look like that,” the actor-producer said to the audience’s laughs.

After Clarkson asked whether that meant Tatum didn’t work out regularly all the time, he clarified that how his body looks in those films goes behind a healthy, consistent workout routine. “It’s hard even if you do work out to be in that kind of shape,” he said.

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And when the topic of “eating well” to maintain that kind of physique was broached, the Magic Mike 3 star and producer wouldn’t even use the word “well” to describe the diet regimen. “‘Well’ is not even — that’s not even healthy. You have to starve yourself,” he said. “I don’t think when you’re that lean, it’s actually healthy for you.”

Tatus expressed that he wasn’t even sure how people who work “a nine-to-five actually stay in shape.”

“It’s my full-time job and I can barely do it. If you workout twice a day, you have to eat completely right at a certain time,” he explained.

The actor also spoke about his own weight fluctuation over time, sharing that when he was younger, his body size would fluctuate more. ” It was a lot more when I was younger, but now I can’t get it off as easy, so now I only fluctuate like 15 pounds, but I used to fluctuate like 30.”

As for the decision to add a female lead for the third and final chapter in the franchise, Tatum said the production is heading to London to help tell the story, which features Thandiwe Newton as his co-star and Mike’s “equal.”

“We really wanted, like, a central character that was at least an equal, if not even more of a central character [than] Mike because it should be told at some point through a female’s perspective what the world is and how sex or freedom or relationships kind of, like, evolve around her world,” he said.

Speaking to Thrillist earlier in February, Magic Mike 3 director Steven Soderbergh said that the decision to do yet another Magic Mike film came from him. “This third one was being made at my demand. I was the one that said, ‘I want to do this, and here’s what I want to do,'” he explained.

The film, which was initially announced in November 2021, will premiere exclusively on HBO Max, with Tatum returning in the role loosely based on his own experiences as a dancer in Florida.