Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler - girl on guy premium episode x37: joe manganiello 2

Episode Date: June 30, 2015

rejoin magic mike xxl's joe manganiello and aisha as they rip through upheaval, growth, transition, invasion, transcendence, transgression and the transformational power of love. plus joe almost rips a dude's head off with his bare hands. girl on guy is fine with no photos.

This episode of Girl on Guy is special bonus content available only to Girl on Guy app users. Hey everybody, welcome to a very special episode of Girl and Guy just for my premium subscribers. This episode is with Joe Manginello. Now you may remember that we did an episode with Joe Manginello a couple of years ago. It was actually Juneau, 2013. That is Girl on Guy 97. If you want to go back to the Girl on Guy archives and check that first episode out. What's interesting about this episode is that in these about two plus years,

now. So much has changed in Joe's life, obviously both personally and professionally. We don't delve too deeply into his personal life here, but because there's been such a dramatic shift in the way his life looks and feels, it was really interesting to revisit what has gone on in that period of time with the end of True Blood, with the advent of this massive hit franchise Magic Mike with the films that came in the interim. One, he produced and directed called LaBeer, several that he acted in including sabotage and the upcoming peewee's big holiday. So a lot has gone on and it was just really interesting kind of hear her's perspective on how things have changed. He's a lovely guy.

We had a great conversation. As always, he's incredibly forthcoming when he comes on growing guy, and I'm super grateful for it. I know you are going to enjoy it very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Joe Manginello, once more, the Redux, coming at you, not out of the Growing Guy Bunker, but from his offices high above Los Angeles. in the beginning of the format, the lead-up to the premiere of this month's movie Magic Mike XXL, and it is coming at you straight out of Joe's bunker and right into your face. That's out of dirtier than I intended.

Joe Paganella, welcome back to my show. Thank you. It's very exciting to have you on again. Very exciting to be back. Specifically, let's just start with like the elephant in the room, which is that we're doing this in the middle of what is the maelstrom of the promo for Magic XXL. And you were just telling me about your press schedule.

I just wanted to, I wanted to hear what, look, these are straight up champagne white people problems, but I would like to hear. Hey. No, I have plenty of white people problems myself. These are a male stripper problems. Okay, please. I'm going to be categorized.

Tell me about what this week is going to be like for you, because it's Wednesday right now, and the movie comes out next Wednesday. Next Wednesday? Is that right? Oh, no. First. First of July.

So not next, but like next, next next next. Yeah, next next. So like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. Well, this was the week where it ramped up. So all day, driving around, interview here, interview there. I saw you on the talk. Yes, you're on a couple days ago, which is great.

Just came from a bunch of interviews today. And then tomorrow starts Junkets. And Junkets are 10 in the morning until 5, 6 at night, where you're sitting in a room and the interviewers rotate in and out. And then you have press conferences, and then you have International Day, you have National Day. So that'll be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all day, every day. God, that's so much.

Where you are not afforded the luxury that we have right now, which is really explaining yourself and telling stories, talking about how it really, you know, what the experience is really like. Right. You are pushed in the situations. where you know they are looking for sound bites to then beam out to the blogosphere that are looking to then make a copy of a copy of a copy of your quote

which results in misquoting, fake quoting, sensationalism in order to get people to click, just get those clicks. And it gets frustrating because it seems every day I read some article that the title online, where the title is in quotations, and I didn't say that. Wow. Wow. God. So even if you're very careful to protect how you sound,

they're still going to try to make you sound like a douchebag to somebody just scrolling through their Twitter feet. There's a word for that, actually, that I didn't know. I just learned it's called clickbait. Clickbait. Yeah, I just learned that word. I didn't you ever heard it before, but it's like something that's so sensational that you can't resist clicking through.

Yes. Right. Yeah. And it's never like Joe cured cancer. No, exactly. Like, what? Let me read about that. Joe just splinted an orphan's leg.

Yeah. Joe's the biggest idiot on the planet. Read about it here. So, you know, I don't want to take an adversarial position, but it is difficult because you're in a, you're put into a position where the best you can do is play defense. Yeah. You know, and after three days of 10 hours of listening to yourself talk, you get loopy. Yeah.

And that's when you're really got to watch out because, you know, that's when you're going to say something. And then it's going to be misconstrued and then you're in big trouble. And like you said, there is this, everybody is trying to plow through kind of all the meaningful information to get to the one thing that's probably both most meaningless but most tantalizing. And there's no way you're not going to say something you regret after sitting in like a sanitized hotel room for essentially like, I don't, you know, 24, 36, 72 hours. Sure. It's impossible. Sure. And then, you know, so three days of junkets, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, flight in New York, Monday, New York talk shows, Tuesday morning, New York talk shows, fly to Miami.

Wednesday is Miami Press. And we're getting a star on the Miami Walk of Fame, which I didn't know there was one. Me neither. So I'm going to see who else is on there. You know? Cheetah Rivera. Yeah, and us now. And then Wednesday night fly back to L.A.

Thursday, L.A. Premier, world premiere of Magic Mike XXL. Friday off with the lady. Yeah. And then Saturday fly to London. Three days of London press, including a London premiere. Where you don't get to see the city, mind you. Yeah, I guess. You see a hotel room?

I was so excited of you to go to London. with your friends, but you're not going to get to do anything. It's the same thing. It's like London junk. It's where all of Western Europe will then come up to London. And then we'll go to the London premiere and then we'll have a Q&A afterwards and next night we'll introduce a screening and, you know, same all day press. And then fly to Amsterdam.

And same thing there. So all of Western Central Europe. I'm reserving my excitement since I know that's not going to be fun either. Yeah, it's not like us like hanging out in the coffee shops. I was just getting even an hour, you know. Van Gogh Museum. No, it'll be like, yeah. shuttled from here to there and fighting through jet lag and then you you fly from Amsterdam

back to L.A. And have about a 36-hour layover before flying to Sydney, Australia for two days and doing it again there. The scale, this is so interesting. Because specifically the scale of what you guys are doing for this film is similar what you'd be doing if you had a role in Avengers or something. I mean, you know, there's, the machine gets bigger and bigger and bigger all the time.

When it's interesting, he said that because on the first film, they shopped it around and no one wanted it. No one wanted to make a mail stripper movie. And so they went out and financed it. They split the cost. I think in the end it costs $6.8 million to shoot. And they out of pocket. 6.8 out of pocket.

Wow. And once those studios who previously were scared off by the idea of it, saw what it was about and understood and came to watch the guys do our routines. Right. A bidding war broke out. Okay.

And Warner Brothers won and then announced that they were going to release it as their Fourth of July movie, which we all looked at each other. Like, are you kidding me? Right. But you'd think that was where you release the Avengers or, you know, the new DC movie or something.

And it all kind of dawned on us like, this makes so much sense. Yeah. There just isn't a spot in the market for this, and it represents groups that don't necessarily, or demographics that don't have their own ten-pole films made for them. And I thought, my God, that's so smart and savvy on their part to do that. But the trick was, is once they started showing the film to test audiences,

it tested horribly. Really? Oh, wow. And women did not, it did not test well with women. They were ashamed for seeing it. They were, ladies, for your minds. They didn't like, they didn't like it. They didn't want to admit.

They couldn't admit the how they felt about it. They were embarrassed. But this really interesting thing happened culturally. That was the year that 50 Shades of Gray, the book broke and became really popular and became this kind of, you know, this zeit. geist force and between the when we ended

shooting it and when it came out like the year later or nine months later women did loosen up and it started being okay to talk about your fantasies or talk about how you felt about

the and and this kind of cultural constriction was was relieved to the point where by the time we came out online now and no one had any idea how to track this It's male strippers.

It's kind of a comedy, but it's not really. It's kind of this expose-ish, dark, drugged-out kind of like, almost like a remake of Saturday Night Fever. Saturday Night Fever is exactly the film I would explain. When I said to people, this is our Saturday Night Fever generationally. Yeah. So how do you track that? There was no way to track it, except when you looked online, the amount of social awareness, it had caught fire. Those numbers were equivalent to an Avengers.

or a huge giant 10-pole Marvel movie so no one knew what to make of it and then it hit and we did I think I think you know there were estimates that we were going to make maybe 8 or 12 million we made 2 million on the midnight showings alone and then I think it was

19 first day 39 million weekend which was crazy that was my question was like because what I remember also about the movie was that it had like really it had legs, like it really sustained over that month. Yeah, and then it played internationally in certain territories, and I think it wound up at like 160, off of 6.8.

But I'm really curious this time around because I think that a lot of the, you know, the embarrassment of the shame of going to see this, or admitting you were going to see it fell away. And I think it is a part of the mainstream now, and I think we've caught a lot of people with DVD, with HBO, with pay-per-view. So I'm interested to see how it snowballs.

Right. Because we're also in a year where, you know, pitch perfect to spy with Melissa McCarthy. You have these movies, these, you know, kind of driven towards that demographic that are crushing their opponents at the box office. And you're, I mean, and Magic Mike is a two, and these are not two separate quadrants, but it is a two-quadrant film because it's women. and it's gay men. Yes, which is interesting because to me, you know, and a lot of times I do interviews and the first question is like, oh, you know, you guys had to diet or you had to diet and how hard was the diet?

And I'm like, the diet was like the porterhouse for two every meal. Right, right, right. If you like steak, like I'd order a steak and I'd order another one. I'm eating two dinners, you know, six times a day. Like, there's no diet. I'm not some manner-exic, you know, freak on this kind of, you know, bodybuilder slash dancer who needs to eat a ton and, you know, hang out with your buddies and smoke cigars and eat red meat and lift weights. And, you know, so to me it was like, yeah. So to me, it was like being in a locker room on wheels, you know, we're on this food truck driving around and in this big, broad comedy.

So to me, it's such a, such a guy movie. Yeah. to me because we're all these bros. Like, yeah, it's about friendship between these guys. I understand why it appeals to the demographics it does. Yeah, yeah. But all of my friends, my buddies that have, you know, I've snuck into screenings so far, like, love it. Yeah.

Well, I remember pitching it to my straight male friends, and the way I pitched it was, honestly, this is like a modern Saturday Night Fever. There was an incredible, an incredibly satisfying dark elements of the story. It was about, and I said, you know what, it was about, it was Saturday Night Fever, it was like, there was another movie I was thinking of, it was just like these working class guys like trying to make something of themselves. It was incredibly relatable to everybody. And the guys got laid all the time. And we really, it's a really hetero movie. It's like a very straight appealing. Yeah, but I think there is this misperception or there was this misperception going into it that all the guys were gay. interesting none of the guys were gay well and that's the thing but so but I think it's kind of in like you know when motley crew came out

right and they had makeup and heels and teased up hair and you went out those guys are yeah they have to be gay right exactly no no no no like they are they had sex with everybody

like rat I was like who's sleeping with rat apparently everybody every female within a five mile radius but I think there is this mechanism within men to there's no way that that job there's no way that they're male strippers and you know no like you know

I shot a documentary about I was just gonna bring over there yeah yeah. They're having sex with your wife before your wedding so like I tell guys like you need to step your game up right you know I'm not a male stripper I'm an actor who plays one right but having played one and having shot a documentary about them like you need to bring some of that home. Okay. Let me ask you a big heady, sorry for the pun, question about that specifically, because I, you know, I almost never done any research, but I read a really interesting article where you were talking about kind of specifically the influence of 50 shades of gray on kind of like the female zeitgeist or not even the female zeit guys, the general zeities about women and sexuality. Yes. That about it being much more normative for women to express themselves sexually, to be open about it, for it to be fun and funny and not to me hide. and I wonder about, I have two questions.

So the first question is like with LaBeer, where, from what I could tell, almost all the guys were straight, I don't remember if there was a gay dancer in there, there might have been, but I don't remember. I mean, it kind of doesn't make a lot of sense, because if you're, if you're a gay male dancer, you go to a gay male dancing club. Right, right, exactly. But that's not the culture that Magic Mike is necessarily talking about, and that's not the culture that we were talking about with LaBear Dallas or the club that I explored. People accused me after the film was released, after LaBeer was released, of, you know, doctoring the footage to exclude the gay dancers.

And it's like there just weren't any. Yeah. You know, I'm a documentarian. Believe me, if that was there, that's an interesting piece. It would have been a really interesting piece. Of course. And then how does this guy live in the locker room? Because, you know, we got into that with Michael Sam a little bit last year when he came out of college and came out to the world.

That's interesting. It is a locker room and it is a team. and how is this guy treated, especially in Dallas, Texas. Right, right. But also, too, why would you want to work that job if you could work the job? Yeah, where you might actually also be forming some relationships with people and not feeling like you were isolated or the odd man out.

And a big perk of the job is you get to go home with some of them. And I have a straight friend who worked in a gay bar, and he got propositions all the time. And he was comfortable with it. It wasn't a problem for him, but also it became overwhelming. So it's like vice versa. If you were a gay guy in a straight bar and you were constantly,

proposition by straight women at some point when you'd be like, you know, wouldn't you be a vegan at a at a steakhouse? Like, I don't, this isn't my food. I got to get out of here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Um, there's only so many veggie burgers. Exactly. You got to go. Yeah, before you. Get some got a steak. Yeah, there you go. Um, so I also wonder how that, that new zeitgeist has expressed itself in the way, in the conversations that you have about the film. Um, maybe, let me start here. Like, How you've always kind of had this element of your career, I think, because of playing El Cede where people see you as like a sexual, I don't know, use the word sex symbol.

I feel like that's like problem. But people relate you in a sexual way. That was a really sexual show. Well, I've been involved with a couple of the projects that have been on the forefront of this wind of change. I think true blood, I mean, I think True Blood changed cable TV and TV forever. And I really do hope that. people remember that. You know, whether or not the show is remembered,

I just, I think that people should remember the next time they see someone's naked ass up on screen. You know, and a really gratuitous sex scene and some really ripped, you know, people, they connect the dots back to our show. There was something also matter of fact about the sex on True Blood. I mean, it was, everything was heightened, but I also felt like it was just an aspect of everything was happening in these people's lives

and I don't know, the show didn't seem to stop down for the sex, it just seemed to be like a runaway train and then people were fucking and then other things were happening. That's how it felt to me. Yes, I agree. It was like, you know, just one thing, then somebody got stabbed, then somebody died, and lots of other things happened too.

Yeah, yeah. You know, but it opened the door for, I think, for that conversation, and, you know, there were people that would come up to me and say, you know, oh, I hear the show, was ending and got him, I don't know what I'm going to do now. I'm worried about my marriage because every Sunday night, my wife was in the mood and I get lucky. Wow. That's a lot of it. I just kind of put my hand on some guy's shoulder and just go, man,

I don't know what they tell you, man. You know, so that's certainly open the door for, because in its essence, it was this romance novel. You know, there was this, this, this, this woman being surrounded by these suitors, and they were ripped straight off of a romance novel cover, vampire novel, and then he had the Werewolf Guy. And now we moved to Magic Mike, which, you know, which I, you know, and I don't want to give much away about the movie because I'm, I'm more proud of this. And I've, you know, I've been acting about 22 years now. I'm, I'm more proud of this, and I am more excited for people to see this project than anything I've ever done. That's incredible.

It's so much fun. It's this big, giant comedy. Like the whole, I mean, where the first one was kind of this indie expose kind of dark, you kind of have to go there with the first male stripper movie, I think, because there is some sort of apology about it. Right, right. It's got to have some substance to it. It's got to have some weight.

Yes. And not to say that this, follow-up doesn't have substance or we didn't all do the work as actors. Right, right, right, right. But when the first one was successful and critically acclaimed, you then go, okay, what's the movie we really want to make? And what's the movie we think people really want to see. And that's what part two. And you've got a freedom now. You've got a freedom to pretty much. People love these characters. They love their relationships. And so they're going to come along. And they really didn't even get to meet them. We did all the work in part. part one, but we were really, you know, the spear carriers in the background. We were really the ensemble, just kind of hanging out in the back.

Yeah. But I can't think of another movie where, you know, you drop like three of the main characters and the ensemble comes in and picks up the slack. Yeah. Or four of the main characters, let's say. Yeah. And it kind of seamlessly works. And it's just a lot of fun.

And I think that that's really what's at the root of this cultural revolution in terms of true blood and in terms of now, you know, magic my kind of carrying that torch, let's say. I get asked all the time if I feel weird about being objectified. Do you feel objectified being up there? And I say, who gives a shit? Like, who cares? Right. I'm like, as a guy, like, I don't care why somebody likes me.

Why do I care? Like, I'm going to be complaining that I'm, oh, I'm, I'm, Mary and Sophia Vergara. Oh, God. Like, it didn't work. You know, like, come on. Like, obviously, it worked. Like, whatever I did from Scroni...

Right. Scroni Junior High High School kid to now, something obviously went right. So who am I to get up there and say, oh, I feel weird about it? But this is interesting. So, and I don't want to put... Lighten up everybody.

I don't want you to put other people on blast, but I think there's a trend right now among some really successful young actors who insist on people only liking them for certain reasons. And I'll put them on blast so you don't have to. But, like, for example, someone who I think is a really talented actor, Shaila Buff, who's like, you can only like me if you like me for my weird, naked, Cigar Ross video, because that's real art.

But the big, giant, Sparkley movie isn't art. And I guess it's just interesting. I feel like there's a big part of what we sell that's fantasy. You kind of don't get to decide why people like you. Well, that's like the Kirk Cobain thing. You know, Kirk Cobain, you know, I think of a song like In Bloom, where he's basically ranting against the, you know, beer-drinking fraternity jock crowd who he was predicting we're going to buy his albums and be singing from the front row, but they know not what it means.

Right. You know, and he was basically giving the finger to his fans and a majority, I would say, of the fans that were buying his album. You know, I would never be so brash as to do that. You know, I think for me it's like, I want as, God, I want to appeal to as many audiences as I can. And I'm not going to try to tell somebody why they should like me, because I don't, I just, I don't care.

You know, I think in my acting career, there was a point where I did not have choices. there was a point where I was cast in what I was cast in it and I did what I had to do to make a living. Now, I was lucky enough to have one of those jobs be true blood. So, okay, you're going to play the shirtless werewolf. Okay, well, let's try to inject as much heart or substance or depth into this as the writing will allow.

And, oh, well, if I'm shirtless, well, I'm going to get my ass in the best shape I've ever been in because I'm just a hard worker and I want to make the most out of this opportunity. So, you know, so, okay, that happens and that catches on. Well, then I have an opportunity to shoot a movie with Steven Soderberg. I don't care what it's about. Right. You know, it could be about me cleaning toilets all day, and it's Steven Soderberg, so guess what I'm going to do. So, oh, and I'm going to be in a thong.

Okay, well, better get in the best shape you've ever been in now. Right. And you just go with the flow. And once again, it's like, let's have some fun with this. And, you know, oh, you know, for me to say, you know, some big budget movie, you know, I was in Spider-Man with Sam Ramey, and I think he's a phenomenal storyteller. And I think that that movie really stands the test. The time we're about to reboot it for the third time in like 12 years. You know, I think that Sam Rameas will be remembered.

It was so much heart. And I think that, you know, my goal in life. was to always work on projects with really smart people, the Allen Balls and Steven Soderbergs and Sam Ramees. But like I wanted to be in stuff that people saw because, you know, I come from classical theater and, you know, like I put in some great performances that nobody saw. You know, it's the tree falling in the in the forest. Like I, you know, I'm cutting down a big tree.

Let's have a crowd. Right. You know, like somebody's going to see this thing go down. Yeah. And so, you know, I just think, you know, also, too, I think that a lot of times there are people, and I'm not going to put anybody in particular on blast, but, you know, you see it some time with actresses. And I understand that there are different societal pressures than there are for actors than there are for actors. But, you know, some actresses in particular who, you know, were naked in a role right off the bat,

which kind of pluck them out of obscurity and put them into the mainstream. And now they have this massive fan base of guys who, you know, who were attracted to them because they were naked. Right. And now they want to say, I'll never do that again. And it's like, well, okay, just give credit where creditors do.

You did what you had to do to get people to pay attention. Now what you do with that from there and out. Yeah, it's up to you. Whatever, but like that for me doesn't mean I want to run off and do some project that nobody's going to see. Right. You know, I want to go to the bigger,

badder next thing. And if it involves being in shit, shape, like, well, great, because I feel great when I work out, and I really enjoy pushing myself. So, cool. Right. You know, because, I mean, I could lose 40, 50 pounds. I'm still going to be six for five, and no one's going to cast me as Stephen Hawking, no matter how great I think I would be in that role.

So there is an amount of, like, you kind of are what you are. Right, right. So it's about taking those roles. And now that I have a choice, it's about finding those masculine roles that involve complexity and being able to kind of, you know, pick and, you know, choose my way now. And you're able to take, you're able to deliver something very specific. I mean, I think the key for every actor is your skill sets, your skill set.

But then also, when I show up on set, what's the thing I'm going to bring that nobody else can bring as specifically as I can? Yeah. And I think that, you know, the other side of it is that who I am inside and who I am as a person is very different than the characters that I play. You know, I play this construction worker country, werewolf guy. Yeah. And, you know, I grew up in a very affluent, nice neighborhood.

Yeah. My high school was like 90210. Yeah. So I'm not a country werewolf and construction worker guy. I have an Ivy League education, basically. Right, right. And, you know, and then a male stripper, like, could not be further from who I am, really. You know, but I think the job is to embody those roles and have fun with them.

But furthermore, it's the lesson in this business, which is, you know, if people picture that you're the beer drinking, bar fighting, motorcycle riding guy. And, you know, if you're not that person, you need, if you want to work, you need to figure out how to be that person or portray that person. So, you know, I'm flattered when people think I'm an idiot. He's been doing your job well. Pretty much. Yeah. So it's like, great. You know, did you grow up on a farm?

No, no. Actually, I didn't, you know. You're like some dumb meathead jock, male stripper. Great. Okay, yes. That's who I'm playing in the movie. And that's great because that also says to me, maybe you aren't reading the tablets.

Right, right, yeah. Maybe you don't know who I am. Right. Which is kind of, you know, the thing, going back to the junkets, you're giving them a version of yourself that's okay with you're oh it's the version of me that I'm okay letting somebody see right right right but that's not me right yeah at all yeah and I'm certainly not me with the paparazzi right or those pictures of those stories that they read that's

not me either let's talk about that now because and then I want to circle back to ask you a little bit more out of la bear um because you know people know I don't care about people's relationships on this show but I do think what I was really really struck by, and I don't really consume that stuff, but it's oppressive now. Like, it's everywhere. And then I work on a show where, you know, for better, for worse, I don't think we're a gossip show. We tend to kind of talk about, take a point in the news and make it and personalize it.

But occasionally, you wouldn't even be covered that shit. So you're in a relationship now that is just so wild. It's covered so much more extensively than any of your previous relationships. And you strike me from. And unfortunately, a lot of times more than the work. Right, way more than the work. No, I don't, I mean, it's, that's kind of the, we sent out, if you send out a Twitter or an Instagram photo, I mean, it's like more on that than there is about the movie I have

coming out, which, you know, I mean, is what it is, but, yeah. How, and I really want to just keep it about you and not about the relationship, but how comfortable are you with that? I mean, did you expect that? That there would be so, there would be so much digestion of your personal. personal life? Yeah, I did. You know, I had been out before with people who were famous, famous women.

And I'm not going to say who they are. But, I mean, there was the point every single time when I was out with those women, where was I willing to cross the line into having this go public. And honestly, every single time I decided it wasn't worth it. You know, I'm a pretty normal guy. You know, I wouldn't say my life is normal, but I'd say on the inside, I do identify with, you know, the no-nonsense kind of mantra of Pittsburgh. Yeah. I am a Pittsburgh guy through and through in that way, or a Midwest sensibility or whatever East Coast, whatever you want to say.

So I would get to that point where it was a, it could go public. or not and I would kind of have to make this decision whether or not that this was going to be worth it for me or not and in every case I said no you know and kind of backed backed away or didn't want to go there. Did you feel like that like once that stuff happened it was a you were concerned about it encroaching on your life or was it also that once you do that the public kind of locks you into like you didn't get locked into something by public consumption like now this is this relationship and we're going to tag and I'm going to follow it and one and and and and and and and. And I think that, you know, I think the good part about it for me is that I get to talk about love on a regular basis. And I really like having the opportunity for that because I think that message is what should be beamed out. And I think that that's what's important for people to hear. People, it's important to be able to speak about being in love with somebody. And really, like I was saying before, like stepping up your game and being the great.

greatest guy possible to this person across from me. And I think that that message is what's worth it. And I hope that that's what my relationship stands for. You know, the trick about it is that you then start to live like a fugitive going in through back doors. You get into altercations at the airport. You get into not being able to trust people who are going to sell you out. Airport readers being paid off to leave you on the curb for 10 minutes while these people scream like horrible, unfeeling questions at you and your significant... Intentionally to provoke you to get a reaction. To get a reaction.

I've been physically, you know, hit by paparazzi. I've been verbally abused by paparazzi. order to try to get me to react. I've had, I mean, hell, I tried to get engaged in Hawaii, and the hotel sold us out. They sold rooms. Supposed it was all sold out, but somehow a paparazzi got a room facing the pool, who videoted us every day, and filmed us, and they were on the premises, and they followed us around every day. Like, I don't want to, I don't, you know, and then you also get into, And I want to be very careful about this because, you know, the fans are why I do this. Like I was saying, like, you know, I don't want the tree to fall in the forest and have nobody there.

You know, I do this for other people to watch. You know, otherwise I'd be doing monologues in my mirror at home, which is not really my intention. So it is all about the fans. And I think that, you know, letting fans into my life, you know, is really, I think, the plus side or the bonus side of kind of the, internet that people can feel like they're a part of your life and your career which i think is worthwhile um but you know i think about when we were in savannah filming this guy chased us out of a bar he he literally hovered over our table for three hours good lord hovered while we were you know eating and and trying to watch a game and just hovered just stood there sometimes blocking the tv

where i had to try to politely ask him to move because he was standing around and he'd come and staying right back. Crazy. So we get up from the table and leave. You know, let me get a selfie. Let me get a selfie. Okay.

So we take the selfie and we keep walking. He comes running up and goes, you know, I want another one. I said, man, you know, we just gave you one. We're just trying to get out of here.

You know, because now there's a crowd chasing us and we're just trying to like to get. And, you know, come in to one, a line form. It's like zombies.

Yeah. It's like the walking dead. You know, you just gotta keep moving or else you get caught. Yeah, so we're just, you know,

trying to move and we gave him one and now he wants another one and it's like dude you know like come on man we just gave you one we're trying to get out of here like we're nice enough to stop he goes that's your fucking job wow that's your fucking job do your fucking job and I mean

I don't let me get to the straight I don't owe you shit bro not even what I gave you yeah that was a gift yeah I mean you know I perform yeah you know I perform and I try to make you laugh try to make you, you know, feel something. That's my job. You know, the rest of it is like, I mean, believe me, if I can do anything for anybody, I will.

But now you're going to try to get in my face like that and try to, you're going to try to fight me now? Right. That's my job. That's, listen, I don't have to do anything for you. Yeah. I do it because I care about you as a fan, but now you've crossed that line into rudeness. Right. Which is, you know, I don't know you anything now.

Yeah. Yeah. So. There's two things that are so interesting here. Because there is this cultural sense that because you're in the public eye, people are entitled to know about your life. Yeah. I feel like anything you present or you give up voluntarily is fair game. Hey, I'm tweeting this stuff out about this event or that or thing.

I'm sharing this with you. I'm sharing this with you. I'm sharing this photo with you. But the idea that people are entitled to that information is I think where we've like hit a really problematic area. Well, and I think also too, it's like, and I understand this. And I have, you know, I get it, but there's a lack of, of, I guess, like, understanding of the human being behind it. But you are a human being. You seem to be a human being, you know? I remember when I was a kid, we were at a Chinese restaurant, which is like a big special occasion for us.

We would go to this. There's a Chinese restaurant called the Seshwan House, and we would go. And it was like my favorite thing ever. I remember we were sitting there eating. And Frank O'Harearrow. Harris came in, Steeler grade came in and sat down at a table, a few tables away from us. And I couldn't believe it. You know, and I turned to my dad and said, oh, my God. You know, that's Franco Harris. You know, can I go get his autograph? And my dad grabbed my hand and said, sit down.

He said, don't bother him. He's trying to eat with his family. Leave him alone. You know, he's just trying to be like the rest of us. Just treat him like a normal person. And I got super mad at my dad. Like, come on, man, you know. But I, okay, so I sit there and I'm eating.

And then this guy from another table gets up, goes over, asks for the autograph, and I'm looking at my dad, like, man, see, I could have got one. You screwed me. So Franco signs the autograph, hands up back to the guy, gets up with his family, and leaves. Yeah. And I realized, you know, my dad was right. And that stuck with me, that you don't do that. You just let somebody live their life.

You know, you let them try to, try to breathe. You know, I mean, look, I understand not everybody's that way. You know, and I certainly, you know, I ran into somebody from Pittsburgh who I was amazed, like, didn't want to pull me and do the selfie and take 10 pictures and do the photo shoot. They just wanted to come up and say hi and talk about home. Yeah. And it was like, we're connecting now. Yeah. You know, and that's what I really want.

That's why I do this. And that's what was so fun, I think, when, you know, in True Blood, Burr. was being able to commune with the fans and talk to fans and find out who they were and really connect on that level. You know, all too often I think that, you know, people, maybe they're intimidated or whatever, but they just want the picture and they want to get out of there. Right. You know, and I'm like, man, come on, you know.

You just want to get some ass and take off, you know what I mean? Like, you want to. We're not going to talk. We're not going to cuddle afterwards. I also think because of your statured, too, either people are intimidated by you or you, or you have this guy where people do want to, they just because of the way you look, they want to get in your face.

Which is crazy to me. I wouldn't want to fight you, even with some assistance. But I don't know. Actually, he was trying to start a fight with Sophia. Really? Which is crazy. What?

Because I was like pulling her, because she's like, she's like, I'm not, you know, she was ready and I'm like, honey, I'm the one who's going to be punching this guy and losing his residuals for the rest of his life. Let's go. Come on.

Let's go, let's go, let's go. You know. It's just, it's surreal. I mean, it's, I find it very interesting, just having known you kind of prior to this time and now, it's, you know, it comes with the territory, but it's always got to feel a little startling. I think it was, it was just the battle to stay normal, you know, I think, because, you know, however normal I am or want to, you know, I knew that, I mean, you fall in love with who you fall in love with. That was it for me. I mean, I knew it, she knew it. We're like, oh, shit, this is going to be crazy.

But, you know, it's worth it. It's so worth it. And it really does drive us together because the two of us, you know, we're on an island together, you know. And we're trying to make sense of this crazy world and this crazy business together. And we are, you know, I become like a protector. Like, you know, I used to work as a bodyguard and a bouncer. And man, I go into that mode with her. Yeah.

You know, I block her from the pop rod to get these guys out of a way, grab her on the waist, get her into the car. You know, like I turn into to that guy because I'm trying to create this bubble where we can be ourselves and be with ourselves away from all of the commotion. But it really is a battle to remain normal or remain human and not take all of this for granted because, you know, I need to keep creating and I need to keep telling stories about, you know, I say normal people, but like, werewolves and male strippers. But, like, I need to keep portraying, you know, try to comment on human life or the human experience. I'm just looking at a version of the human experience that is very, I don't know, it's in, like, rare air. Right.

You know. That may, that's a perfect place to circle back to LaBeer. I want to make sure I have the timeline right. you'd already done Magic Mike and then you started working on LaVare. Yeah, I had no interest in male strippers prior to working on Magic Mike. Interesting.

And then you make this movie which was so touching and intimate and sweet. Thanks, and thank you for coming to the premiere. Oh, it was a pleasure. It was so cool that you came out and support it. That was really awesome. You know, being in this business

and knowing how hard it is to make a film even when it's not your movie. And just remember us talking about what a challenge it was, I was just super excited to support you. I just think you've got to support your friends when they're making stuff You know how hard it is to get a film done.

I do. So I wonder if that experience making LeBeer influenced the work on Magic Mike, if the intimacy with these real guys doing this real job changed how you played. Because, by the way, you know, you guys had a... You did a good amount of work in the first film, but, you know, Big Dick Richie's biggest scene was an ECU. That underscored how he got his name. So, I mean, you just...

You got... Yeah, yeah. And then some really, really wonderful nonverbal work, I thought. Yes, thank you. Really good face. Thank you. So I just wonder now you guys have so much more to do in this second film. What about your experience on The Bear might have come through in that?

Well, the answer is a lot. Financing and directing my own and editing, you know, every day in the editing booth for my own documentary was that. best research I could have possibly done for this role. For nothing more, if for nothing more, than the sense of humor of the guys, that camaraderie, this sense of team and this sometimes aware, sometimes unaware sense of humor. All of that gave me the, or at least especially when you're, because not to say that it was a laugh riot the whole way but I think when you get into an editing room and you start forming the story

and the narrative and you realize like how how funny the movie is is turning out that there are laugh out loud moments that's what the gun for that was that was the reaction to get out of a crowd the screaming oh whoa oh you know outrageousness and I think we captured that in in part to. I think I've never and I've been to a couple I've been to one, well a couple screenings of the film so far and I mean I've just never

been in a theater where people are screaming that loudly at the screen like we're not there performing loudness right like yelling, screaming, talking, oh no! Clapping. Wow. I mean there's

like a good, there's a segment in the movie that's about 20 minutes where there isn't dialogue. And it plays in real time. Wow. And there's clapping. Like people clap the whole way through and yell and scream. And you can't hear like, I mean, through the movie, you can't hear the next joke or the next line because the commotion is coming down.

I've never been in a movie, in a theater that's created something through a screen that's that electrifying. Yeah. And I think that a lot of that, for me at least, you know, LeBere kind of was the compass towards what the goal was for me. And I certainly showed it to, you know, Greg and Stephen and Channing and Reed and Matt. And the whole gang saw LaBeer before we started shooting. And everybody loved it so much that they invited the LaBeer Dallas guys to come up and play rival strippers to us in matching my XXL, yeah, at the convention. And that one thing I remember about LaBeer was the guys' relationships with each other. I mean, look at spoiler alert, but the phone came out of,

Was it last year? Yeah, I was like right, like this time last year. Last year. June 27th, they came on in theaters. So, you know, they are really close to someone that they lose. And there's just a lot of, there's a lot of emotional, oh, I want to think of something doesn't sound dushy. I was going to say, like, connect a matter.

That's just, that's terrible. But, you know, these guys are really connected emotionally. They have a relationship. They have a friendship. They feel like a family. They're three-dimensional. Yeah. And, yeah, and there is an emotional content.

And there is an emotional weight. or agravitas or something. I think that you wouldn't expect. And, you know, I think, you know, when I was shooting and editing LaBeer, you know, my editor, Chris Grobin and I, we'd look at each other and just say, man, you know, if this was Magic, Mike,

nobody would believe this. Right. You could never write this script. And I think that because it was so out there and so outrageous but so grounded, it definitely gave me permission, and I wonder about the other guys too, but I think it gave us all permission to really stretch and go as far out as you could.

But Greg Jacobs, our director, was very smart in trying to keep everything grounded. They encouraged us to go out there on the limb, but he was keeping us rooted and grounded so that it felt real emotionally. It's crazy and insane, and you can't believe the places we go to, but it's all very grounded because it is really. real. And these guys, they are real. And there is this brotherhood and it is about friendship. But with that said, it's like we give the audience complete permission to just scream their heads off. Right. Scalabhip bananas. Yeah, it's awesome. Your life has changed so much since, because when I saw you last, you were just finishing up True Blood. I think you were just, you were just finishing up. When you left that behind, did you have a set of expectations for

yourself creatively about what you wanted to do? Well. You were working on your film, so I imagine that was taking up a big part of your kind of of your creative energy. Yeah. You know, you always have a plan. I mean, at least I do. I have a plan.

And what I'm hoping for. But a lot of times I found that life takes me in a different direction than how I have planned. But I still have to plan at all. You know, and head somewhere. And life will kind of nudge me or bump me into the right. right, you know, onto the right path. Right.

So I would say that, you know, that there was a bit of transition coming off of a five-year TV show. And I think that, you know, for me, there was a lot of heat in the first couple of seasons when my character came on. You know, the storyline was about my character and whether or not I was going to get together with Anna's character. And there was a lot of heat on it. It was a very hot show at the time. And I think for me, that cooled off during my last couple of seasons. You know, I was hardly in the last season. And the season before, I was kind of, you know, one scene in episode or, you know, I was kind of sitting on the bench, basically.

So getting off the show was a bit of a transition. I had to go through a transitional year where, you know, luckily for me, Magic Mike was there for me to shoot. And, you know, I have to hand it to Channing and Reed and Greg and Stephen and Gang for giving me such great stuff to do. I mean, they made this film, you know, as much mine as anybody's, and you have to give credit to Channing because Channing could have been sitting there saying, I want to do that, or that's my part, or give them less. And instead, he was encouraging everyone to give us as the ensemble more. He wanted to make sure we were all happy, although we all had fun things to do. and they really worked with me and helped to develop this really fun character

that didn't get to be developed in that first movie. So, you know, that was, it was them giving me a chance to do something on a big scale that, you know, other people just kind of weren't willing to give me. They weren't willing to give me the keys to the car, but these guys did. And a lot of times as an actor, it can get frustrating because you're like, man, I've been at this for 20 years,

years and you know I was you know the old line and and swingers when he's like you know he doesn't get the part of goofy at Disney World and he's like man I was I was Hamlet off Broadway two months ago and I was great you know welcome you know and I think that every actor in this town gets frustrated because you do feel that way you know you've done some amazing work and but people are going to treat you the way whatever your last role was that's or how they're going to treat you if you're the bully in Spider-Man you can play the bully but you know if you're the were You can play a werewolf, but, you know, and they don't understand that there's this body of work kind of following it. And, you know, which is funny, people that have seen Magic Mike, they're like, oh, yeah, you're funny.

Who knew? And I'm like, well, people that watch me on sitcoms for the past 10 years, I guess. All the other stuff I've done. My mom knew I was funny, you know? So, you know, and I think that it's just, you know, it's just the nature of the beast, you know. And if I didn't do another comedy for three years, people would forget that I did this one. Right. So, you know, I think there was a bit of a, you know, of a desert to kind of walk through after True Blood.

But, you know, what was good for me was that, you know, I tore my bicep very badly at filming Magic Mike. And I powered through weeks, weeks of filming on a torn bicellet. During training or in a scene? No, during my finale routine. Oh, wow. Which is performed on a Chinese basket or sex wing. Yes. Ah, yes, I do remember those.

So, yeah, I tore it really badly, but it didn't snap and roll up into my shoulder and cave my arm in. Oh, God, that can happen. Which is what it normally happens. Yeah, and your arm is deformed and black and blue. The whole arm turns like black. And the muscle withdraws like up into your shoulder. It snaps like a pack of, you know, gum up into your arm and shoulder. What would you do?

The movie be over. I mean, it would be over. There's no way I can shoot the movie. We don't have a July 1st. movie and I don't know I mean we'd probably just now be able to pick that footage up how did you treat it

how did you keep it from snapping well further or you know I I I mean honestly because it didn't snap up I thought it was a dislocated bone in my forearm so you just had a lot of pain I thought it was a dislocated bone in my elbow and and I thought you know the

all the physical therapists that worked on it thought that's what it was and they thought that they had kind of snapped it back into place, which it felt like there was, you know. And so I just went on my merry way. You know, I'm, you know, bench pressing 300 at lunch. And, you know, I mean, not, you know, thinking, man, my arms hurt, but I have to kind of, I got to stay in shape.

And I got to finish this movie and just powered through it. And, you know, that finale routine, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. the girl in the routine with me did something that was unrehearsed. And there was a giant rip and pop. And I thought, it's gone. But once again, it didn't snap them in the shoulder. I thought, it's that damn elbow bone again popping out. And so we pushed it back in, but my arm was numb and I couldn't feel it.

And I was really scared. And I filmed another four and a half hours to complete the scene because I didn't want to have to push it to another day. Like, this is it. Like, I'm ready to go. We got to try to do this. and oh god Sophia was there that day. She was losing her mind. Oh my God.

She was so upset because, I mean, everybody thought my arms was going to rip in half. Right, right. And at this point, you feel like you know something's really, really wrong with it. Oh, I know. My mind, usually you can visualize. You know, you have a bar in the bench press. You can visualize pushing the mind-body connection. Right.

My mind-body connection shut down as a defense mechanism. My brain shut down and wouldn't send the signal so that I, I could imagine jumping in the air and landing on top of this, like, monkey bar system on top of this. On your arms? On my arms. Holding myself up. It wouldn't picture it. Yeah, because it was like, save yourself.

It was like, don't do it. Like, we're not going to let you do this. So I would have to run, launch myself into the air and, like, pray that it would hold and not snap, thinking it was probably going to snap every time. Oh, my God. So I got through with that. Finish that scene. And, you know, like, Sophia was, like, screaming at me in that. And everybody was, hey, good, great game, man, you know, good game, good game.

Way to go. Oh, my God, that was incredible. Good for you for power and through. And I get the ice pack of my arm. And I'm like, yeah, thanks, guys. We get into my trailer, the door closes. She looks at me and goes, if I catch you at the fucking gym tomorrow, if you're working out, if I see that you're doing anything, but laying off of the arm, I'm going to fucking leave you.

Do you understand me? You know, she was so just freaked out. Worried about you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and like, I've never heard of a. And you're like that being that extreme. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I'm like, oh, torn by step, like a baby bruised or taped up. Is that a scar? Did you have to have surgery? Oh, yeah. Well, so I get home and, you know, I go in to see the doctor and I got an MRI and went into his office afterwards and he was putting up the x-rays, you know, or the MRI scans, I should say. The MRI scans and he, you know, turned to the nurses and said, come here.

You know. Do you see that? Do you see this? Do you see this right here? And I'm like, what, what, what? He goes, we need to operate. Is it just wrapped up? It's, yeah, there was a brace on it.

To keep you from articulating muscle. Yeah, yeah. And just to remind yourself, don't. Don't try that. Pick anything up. Yeah. And then I went into surgery, and it was, you know, major, pretty major surgery. They cut here on the top.

Oh, yeah. They cut that. Oh, wow. Which is actually amazing because it's in the fold of the arts. Yeah, you're never going to see that. That's great. And then that one there. And they have to kind of sew the ligaments together, and then they drill a hole through the bone and fish that ligament through the hole in the bone and anchor it on a, like a titanium.

On the other side, that's where that's scar is for. Yeah. How painful was that coming out of that surgery? It was nasty. Yeah. It was pretty rough. You make a living being in banana shape. You wrote a book about it.

It's, you know, it's, and I think. And we talked about this earlier, but I think like you, you know, however you kind of create, whatever you do to create kind of a tool or an art piece out of like your body and your mind. I mean, it's all kind of like one big thing. You know what your, what your cerebral abilities are, what your physical abilities are. Like you're, and you could, like you said, you could lose 40 pounds. You could put 40 pounds on for a role. But specifically right now, if I can be super douchey, the Meginello brand is a fitness brand.

It's like an extremely, you're an extremely fit person. and how frustrating was it for you that you couldn't work out? Honestly, it was okay. I had so much producing stuff to do. I had just optioned this unbelievable project, this book, and I needed to adapt the book into a treatment form so that I could pitch it back to the guy who wrote it and make sure that we were cool

and then start moving it into screenplay format. And so, you know, I was okay, you know, with that. A little forced, little forced hiatus for you. Yeah, I mean, it was okay and got to catch up

on all of my gratuitous TV watching. You know, we caught up on Game of Thrones, which was great. So, you know, that was okay

switching gears because I do come from this academic background. So, you know, it was all right. I'd say that four months,

five months into it after surgery, I started getting crazy. Yeah. Because I just wanted to, I wanted to do a pull-up. I just wanted to go back to the way that I was. I've worked so hard to build that foundation.

I just wanted to go train the way that I normally can or could, and I just can't. It's a long recovery process. It's a long rehab. It's five, six months? I mean, it's been seven months plus now, and I'm just now getting into the place where I don't, you know, even like suponating and pronating,

and still really tight. Well, you've got a piece of titanium in there. Yeah, yeah. And the scar tissue that needs to form and you have to kind of care, you know, you have to handle that gingerly because, you know, it can tear again. Right.

You know, and it's not about aesthetics. You know, I'm not somebody that preaches aesthetics and preaches like, oh, I work out to look a certain way. I'm working out to be a better athlete. I'm working out to improve at my workouts. because I'm an athlete first and all the aesthetics are going to fall into place if you're working.

Right. I guess I wasn't pitching it that way. I think the bigger thing I wanted to point out about you is that one of the reasons why you're so successful and I think one of the reasons why when you went through periods we talked about this in the first show where you were really busy in periods where you weren't really busy which I think every actor has to weather

is because you're mentally very tough and you're somebody who's always moving forward. Do you know what I mean? There's a specific kind of personality, and maybe I'm wrong about this, but my sense of you is that you're a very driven person. And that's some people to be driven have to kind of get up and decide to be driven,

and some people are just innately driven. It's just how they operate. So I guess that bigger question was, how was it for you to not be able to do all of the things that you don't just like to do, but probably you need to do to feel like Joe every day, which is, you know. Well, I was lucky that I didn't have to

drop out of projects. You know, that once Magic Mike ended, you know, we ended in, you know, October. So I didn't have anything for November, December. So, you know, I told the surgeon, like, let's do it now. This is going to be fine. I'm going to have the holidays to recuperate. Now, coming out of the holidays, there was a military role in a Tina Fey movie, this comedy, really great.

Directed by the directing team that made Focus, Crazy Stupid Love, you know. So they offered me this great. roll but that I couldn't take because I just couldn't hold a rifle and do some of the things that I was going to have to do in an action capacity. So I was sad that I had to, you know, miss out on that, but, you know, I also, you know, got to take care of the arm and, you know, really concentrate on my producing slate because right around that time I got to see a cut of Magic Mike, the new XXL with my agents and managers and, you know, Soderberg also. said to me, if I were you, I wouldn't take another job until this thing came out because it's

going to change everything. And I heard those words echoing through my head and, you know, started getting offered a lot of stuff once the movie started being screened. And I started, I was in a position where I got to choose. And it's not to say I'd turn anything down because of my arm, but it was just, it happened at the right time. My life has a funny way of giving me the right job at the right time and not giving me the wrong job at the wrong time. Even when you think you want it sometimes. Yeah, when I really want it, think, oh, that would have been a great opportunity. It's, it's, there's somebody looking out for me. Right. There's something looking out for me. Right. So, you know, the injury happened when it happened. And I mean, you know, the brand, I don't know,

the brand's going to be what it's going to be. Yeah. I don't know. I was, it's a wrong way of articulating it. I hope that in 20 years, the brand is people going to see me in Chekhov plays. Right. And people going to see films you've produced. Sure. And. And, you know, other things that you've made that, I mean, because it sounds like that you're moving into that in a much more aggressive way after we live there. Well, yeah, I mean, it was really about building an infrastructure that was going to be ready to go once this movie hit. You know, I'm about to, you know, after we finish up here, I'm going to get on the phone with my lawyer and finish finalizing the deal for this big action movie that I'm going to go shoot the summer and fall that'll come out some time next year. That's amazing. I just wrapped Pee Wee's Big Holiday.

We were talking about that's so great. I play Peewey's best friend. It's not a stunt cast where I come in and I'm just, you know, me hanging out for a day. Like I legitimately, I play a character that is Pee-Werman's best friend. So excellent. So it's a kind of a, you know, movie about he and I. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Which is amazing that Jet Apatow produced.

And, you know, it looks like, you know, we're in negotiations right now for a limited cable series that we pitched and it looks like we've maybe found our partner that is fascinating. It's something I think that's going to blow people's minds. So that's, you know, the production company. And then, you know, I'm working on the adaptation of No Angel, which was this incredible book that I wanted the rights to like five, six years ago that I couldn't get. because Tony Scott had it at the time, about an ATF agent who infiltrates the Hells Angels undercover for two years

in kind of the wake of the NSA 9-11 kind of thing that happened over here at home over the paranoia, or kind of veiled in the paranoia. So, you know, we've got some really great stuff going that I just wanted in place. They have this great baseball script, this amazing baseball script directed by John Avedson, who directed Rocky and Karate Kid. It's like Rocky in the baseball world. It's amazing. So, you know, we've got some really, really, you know, good stuff.

And I got to concentrate on that. And I got to be at home. Yeah. And which was great. After, you know, five years of insanity, you know, fall in love, meet this amazing woman. And she was at home shooting her show. Yeah. And I got to be there and got to be around to Selma House.

And, you know, we. have this great new house together that we just moved into. So I got to really kind of take care of my life and get everything stable and in order before, you know, before, you know, the rocket takes off. Right, before things get crazy again. Which is kind of like now. Yeah. And which is something, lovely, wonderful, terrible, all those good things about being in this business. Yeah, I mean, being in this business and as busy as I've been, which is such a blessing. You know, I don't, I don't panic and I don't freak out in the moments when I have to recuperate from an injury. And I've got to take a breather, whether I like it or not. I mean, I can always find something to be busy with and work on,

but, you know, I look at those periods and I, and I'm grateful for them because I know it's not going to last very long. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, this time on the couch, it's not going to last very long. So let's enjoy the couch. Yeah, because we know it's going away. Six months, you're going to be complaining. Right. And you're going to be daydreaming about that couch. Right. Well, I'm excited because I am, I loved the first film, and I'm excited to see this one. I've heard so many good things about it, not just from you, but from other people. As we wrap this up, do you have a, I don't know, do you have a second self-inflicted wound story? Have you thought of something that's happened between since I saw you last and now that would qualify?

What was my story last time? I can't even remember. It was, oh, I know. Was it something about showing up drunk at work? Oh, my God. Was it about the... Sorry, I'm sipping out of my cup here. I think it was you, I don't know if it was when you were doing the Captain Morgan stuff,

but I think it was like you had a big night out and then you came to work. No, you showed up for a play. Oh, I was doing Merchant of Venice drunk. Yes, yes. Which, by the way, is both melancholy and delightful. It was so awful, man. I mean, that was one of the hardest panic and, like if you, I mean, look, the good news is if you don't have a panic attack while doing that,

then you're going to be pretty solid emotionally, I think, for the rest of your life. But it was, oh, so tough. You know, and I never did that again. Yeah. I never wanted to do that again. You learned your lesson. No.

And I never, I always had so much respect for acting anyway. I just never wanted to do that. I have a story. Okay, I have another story, but it's not necessarily, you know, it doesn't have to do with a play, but it does have to do with performing. Somewhat. When I was 16 years old, I started getting hired, God, you know, don't ask why, to be Captain Morgan.

I dressed up in a pirate suit and was Captain Morgan in a bunch of bars in Pittsburgh. And I was so successful at it that Seagrams didn't want to do the promotion unless I was Captain Morgan. Like I lied about it at the beginning and then they went back and told the agency, we love this kid. Yeah, we got to get him to keep doing this. So the agency helped me get a fake ID. Oh, how exciting. At 16, I had a guy's ID who was 10 years older than me. So in case we got busted, I was going to be okay.

Yeah. So I was Captain Morgan from age 16 through 23 in Pittsburgh. It's so funny as I just imagine you, a 16-year-old, but still with like this beard. No, actually, I don't think I didn't try growing up. I don't think I could grow the beard until about 28. Right. You know, on the back of the construction truck, I'd just let it go. But no, at that age, no.

So I had like the fake mustache and the wig and the hat and the sword and the gun and the ruffles and the eye patch and the whole deal. And that eye patch, I mean, I almost took a header down a flight of stairs because you lose your death perception when you shut one eye off. I'm wasted and I'm going to fall down the stair. I mean, it was insanity. And I was hammered one night and my girlfriend at the time was going to come meet me at my last bar. And I'm bombed. and we're in the parking lot,

and I'm saying goodbye to the Seagram's reps, and all I have to do is, you know, walk the 50 yards into the door of the bar because I've got to, I get to pee. Yeah, yeah. I just need to walk right over there. But instead, you know, guys, we get drunk, we like peeing outdoors. I just start peeing in the bush. You did, we had to do.

In the parking lot. Yeah. It was a warm night. The light breeze. It's wonderful. And so I'm peeing. into this butch and, uh, boom, outjump these two cops. Mm.

And they're going to take me in. And like the year before, one of the mascots of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, they had a, they had a, used to have a guy who was in this bucko, the buccaneer or whatever in this pirate suit. That guy got arrested for skinny dipping at a YMCA in downtown Pittsburgh with his girlfriend. So they all hopped the fence and went skinny dipping and the cameras caught him. Oh, wow. So he was arrested for an indecent exposure and lost his job and it was front page news.

So I'm like, oh no, now. You're in the Captain Morgan. I'm in the pirate suit. And I'm like, oh, no, this is it. I'm going to jail in a pirate suit, which is going to be really bad for me. And at that moment, my girlfriend showed up who was working for the ATF at the time. Oh, wow. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms.

And she was older than you. Like a year. Oh, okay. Flashed her badge. Talked to the cops and got me off. Oh, my God. Oh, God bless her. But otherwise.

You would have been done. I would have followed me everywhere. And you would have been on the news. Yeah. Like junk and peeing, Captain Morgan. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah.

That's crazy. Anyway. Well, that's a great story. And thank God for her. There is something epic about getting busted being dressed like Captain Morgan and taking a piss in a bush. I mean, there is something like, if it wasn't you, if it was a person, a seat in a movie. Yeah.

It would be really funny. Yeah. Maybe, you know, Magic Mike 3. Yeah. There's always, there's always time. Joe, it was so good to talk with you again. Great talking to you. Yeah, I loved it.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, that was Joe Mangano. A great second conversation with him, and it was really nice to have him back on the show. We felt like, you know, we're old friends and it was just really, really fun to sit down and chat with him about so much interesting stuff that has transpired in his life and to reflect on what it's like to be in this business and how, what it's like to try to try to remain human and remain as authentic as he possibly can when everybody wants to take a giant

chunk out of your ass figuratively and my friends literally i hope you enjoy that conversation you are the very sharpest diamond tip of the long reach of the pointy tip of the spear that is the girl and guy army you are my premium army and you are so very special uh you know what's do come write me a letter come friend me come find me online come say what's up express your love for the army go get your growing guy gear at uh at the store And I can't wait to bring you the next one. Late. Girl on Guy is a production of Hot Machine, blowing shit up since 2009.