Q: Well let's talk about a movie that's full of temptation for people who watched it and for the cast, which is ‘Magic Mike.’  I remember speaking during the junket with you and Channing and you guys were excited. People knew that it was good and that it was probably going to open well, but were you surprised by the reaction and the love that your character in particular received from moviegoers?

It did open well and then it went on to do well, you know.  It really maintained and a lot of people saw it.  So, it translated.  There was for entertainment value and then the Soderbergh -- sort of his tonal value people dug as well.  You know, Dallas, when I was creating him and playing him, I loved him.  I thought he was an absolute riot.  My imagination went so far with this character and it was so easy for me to go – give me five minutes to lead up to the scene and I'll do everything Dallas would do leading up and after the scene's over, don't cut 'cause I'm going to run off and keep being Dallas.  He was in perpetual motion.  I felt like I knew exactly where he was going to go, what he would do, and he was very cosmic character that way.  You know, I've had people come up and go, ‘Oh, yeah, but he's kind of the villain,’ and I was like, ‘You think so?’

And I think what they meant is they go, ‘He's kind of slippery, kind of greasy.’  And I'm like, ‘Oh, yeah, he's that,’ but he didn't consider himself a villain.  He's a poet capitalist who's looking out for number one first.

Q: I actually saw him as someone who was teaching Channing's character a lesson, like ‘This is the way the world. It's not all as easy as it seems.’

‘This is how it goes.  If you want out, there's the door.  If not, you're not getting any younger; let's go.’  You know?

Q: Working with Steven, did he let you improv on the set?

Well, he did.  I had a lot of ideas for how I wanted to introduce my guys [in the strip club] musically, things that I had written about, what I would say.  So he could be a different form of intro.  I was thinking like WWF Wrestling, how they introduce those characters in these big dramatic theatrical carny ways, you know.  And so I came with those ideas and Steven was like, well, go do it.  And then I went and did it and then he'd shoot it and then sometimes if he liked something that I added he might think it needed coverage even and I didn't know how much of it was going to be in the film or not.  Quite a bit of it was.

Q: Was there anything in particular that surprised you that made it in that you were pleased with that he put in?

Well, there wasn't originally.  Dallas didn't dance at the end in the original script. When he initially called me, he was like, ‘But I think it'd be a great idea if he did.’  After getting really nervous and starting to break a sweat, my mouth opened and I was like, ‘Yeah, I got to do that or I'll regret it,’ you know?

Q: Yeah.

And then I came up with the idea, it was like, ‘And you know what?  I think since it's the last night in Tampa, I think Dallas would have a ballad that he sings to the ladies and they think it's a nice touching raise-your-lighters-in-the-air Journey moment and then he's just like ‘[expletive] this.’  Crash the guitar, KISS's 'Calling Dr. Love' comes on, he's kind of duped them and he's like now this is – ‘You know who we are.  You know why you come here.  There's nothing sentimental about us; let's get it on.’  I was glad I did, and I thought it worked in the film.  He kept that sequence in there, you know, with the song and the ballad and into the dance.

Q: There have been a lot of rumors since the movie came out about possible sequels and Channing has talked about it publicly a couple times.  It seems obviously to me that your character, Dallas, would have to come back. Have you guys talked about that at all?

Yeah.

Q: Is there a storyline that they're even thinking of that you know?

I’ve heard a couple of the storylines they were floating around.  I won't share them 'cause neither one of them may end up being what it is, but I've heard a couple of storylines, and if something comes back that I get to look at and I can go, ‘Boy, I know how to be Dallas in that tonally, too, you know,’ then it'd be a blast to do it – to step back in Dallas' shoes.

Q: But one of the things I read, and I don't know if this is true, is that he wants to take a break to sort of visit the characters down on the road, have you heard anything about that?

I haven't heard that.  That's a great idea, though.  Richard Linklater circled that idea with ‘Dazed and Confused’ through the years and just through the years I always checked in with me and like, ‘What do you think Wooderson would be doing now?"  You know?  And check with other people.  ‘What do you think so and so would be doing?’

Q: Really?

Yeah.

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Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.

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