STACK New Zealand October Issue 67

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with CHANNINGTATUM & REID CAROLIN.
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crazy. They’re just these kind of loveable
screw-ups, in a way, who are really just
trying to get on with life and have a
blast. They’re still kind of hilarious and
ridiculous. I think that’s how my friends
and I are. Even when things are going
crazy, we’re all sitting around laughing
at each other. If something bad has just
happened to our buddy, we don’t just
let each other wallow in the crap of it
all. We start poking fun at it, and that’s
the only way we can get through it. So
that’s what these guys do.
Do you each have a favorite scene or
moment during production that was
particularly funny or memorable?
RC: Well, my favorite moment was
just when I laughed the most. It was
Kevin Nash. [Laughs] His character
resides in the shadows of the movie,
but he’s in pretty much every scene.
He falls in the background of everything
that’s going on in the movie, so you
can’t really pay attention to him. But
every joke that he says brings me to
tears somehow because of the way he
delivers it.
There’s a moment where all that sort
of comes to fruition and crescendos.
He’s in this plantation house with these
well-to-do women. And all the guys
are trying to hook up with the various
young women that they’ve come there
to meet. He’s sort of left on the outs.
[Laughs] And he’s sitting there, this
tatted out wrestler with a lion’s mane
and a tank top, with a glass of wine.
And these women are like, ‘Man, I
wish that we had people like you back
in our day. I wish we played the field. I
wish we were just more free with our
sexuality.’ And he just decides to tell
these women, ‘You know, I have had as
good of a run as anyone. I’ve engaged
a lot of women, and I’d give anything to
come home to a wife and kids that love
me and a home…’ [Laughs] It kills me
every time because it’s just so honest
and real, and nobody knows how to
react to it.
CT: No one knows him.
RC: We call himTarzan. He’s just this
mysterious, hulking man always around
that says these amazing one-liners.
CT: There’s a whole movie around
him.
RC: Oh, completely. It’s basically
if Mickey Rourke from The Wrestler
became a stripper and then never
bothered to tell his friends the journey
that he had been on up until that point.
[Laughs] And nobody cares to ask.
CT: Because they’re strippers and
they’re all just right there.
I wanted to ask about shooting in
front of an audience. What is that
like? What is that energy like to
perform in front of a huge crowd?
CT: I challenged Reid to get onstage
in a thong as retribution for a few things
and to join the fold of men that he wrote
a movie about.
RC: Men who have been training to
get in thongs for months and months.
CT: I don’t care. That’s not the point.
[Laughs] Look, it always seems like a
good idea until you actually have to go
out on stage in a thong. Then you get
out there and you’re thinking, ‘What am
I doing? Why did I want to do this? This
is a terrible idea.’ Every single time.
I mean, every night when I was
actually stripping, that was my least
favorite part because you just go out
there, you rip your pants off, and you’re
just standing there in a thong. It doesn’t
matter what moves you do or how cool
you are, you are not cool anymore.
Yeah, the girls are cheering, but they’re
kind of like laughing at the same time.
It’s already uncomfortable. [Laughs]
In the movie, the guy are going out on
this one last ride, and you know it will all
end with everybody being embarrassed
onstage in thongs. But the reason you
do it is because of the guys—that’s
what this movie is about. These guys
like walking on the edge and
basically knowing that it is
there. But they all love
each other. No one will
let each other completely
fall off, and you end up
loving them for that.
It’s basically if Mickey
Rourke from The Wrestler
became a stripper and
then never bothered
to tell his friends the
journey that he had been
on up until that point.