Matt Bomer brings the magic to 'Mike'
It became apparent pretty quickly that Matt Bomer is every bit as lovely on the phone as he is on-screen.
"How are things there?" he asked, meaning Phoenix, at the beginning of a recent interview to discuss his new film, the delightfully ribald "Magic Mike XXL."
"Hot as hell," I said. "I think it's 115 degrees today."
"Oh my gosh, wow. Drink your water, it's probably evaporating right now."
Bomer, 37, has had nutrition and well-being on his mind a lot over the past few years, between slimming down for his Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated performance as a reporter and gay-rights activist dying of AIDS in HBO's "The Normal Heart," and bulking up to play a hunky stripper in "XXL"
He discusses those physical transformations, as well as the athletic demands of doing a proper strip tease, singing live on film and, well, getting your junk grabbed by strangers.
Question: I'm going to start this off with a confession: I really wasn't expecting to like this movie.
Answer: I think that's more than fair.
Q: But I enjoyed the hell out of it. I liked the first one, but the sequel is so much more fun.
A: That was part of the idea. We felt, or certainly Channing (Tatum) and the creative did, that there was another movie within the world of the relationship between the guys that we only saw little glimpses of backstage.
Q: Was it more fun to shoot than the first film?
A: It was so much fun to shoot. Honestly, I had a smile on my face from the minute I got to the set to going home at night. You always worry, though. I was always thinking, gosh, I hope all the fun we're having actually translates ... They gave us such fun characters to play with. It was almost like a locker-room mentality on set, where you're all on the same team and supporting each other ... It's kind of an ideal work environment.
Q: You've gone through some pretty dramatic body transformations in the past couple of years. What's it like physically and psychologically to ricochet between those extremes?
A: This experience was so much more pleasant because there was solidarity amongst us, we had accountability partners. I wasn't in it on my own. It's really difficult when you're by yourself, you don't want to be that person that no one can eat around, but you're sitting there eating your three leaves of lettuce while people are digging into their steaks.
Q: What was your routine getting physically prepped for this film?
A: At the end of a 12-hour filming day we'd be like, all right, gotta hike it to the gym! I know we're tired, but we gotta man up and do it together! ... It was pretty extensive, it began a month and a half, two months before we began filming. For me, it was about actually putting on weight, not getting super lean. It was about eating the right things that would put on the right kind of weight and then going to the gym six days a week and then going to dance rehearsals five days a week, which is a whole different set of muscles that you're working out in a different way. But it was all fun. There was joy in all of it. There's something motivating about knowing that at some point, you're going to be photographed nearly naked. If I had recorded an album for this, it would have been called "Carbless."
Q: Do you have a favorite performance in the film?
A: It would have to be the finale number because we worked so hard on that … That whole thing came about because between takes on the first film, we didn't really have places to go sit, so we would entertain the extras. Channing had me sing one time ... I think I sang a Jodeci song. And Channing remembered that, and he was like, do you want to sing in this one as part of your number? … It was just a dream come true on many levels.
Q: Did you get to pick the songs?
A: Channing asked "what would be the Number 1 song you would sing?" I said, obviously the sexiest song of all time is "How Does It Feel" (by D'Angelo), but I would never be so bold as to record that. He was like, "well, give it a try." ... I sang it live in the film. It was very scary. There are obviously some parts because of noises in certain areas and audience participation that I had to record over so you could hear a little better, but it's predominantly a live vocal.
Q: There are what must be thousands of cheering women in this movie, so many extras. Was it chaos?
A: To be honest with you, I don't even use the term "extra," I use the term "actor." This was that to a T because the audience participation was so key to making the finale a success, and their energy and the freshness they brought to every take for three, four days was really uplifting and kept us bolstered.
Q: Did any of the women get too into their roles?
A: You know, I don't think there is such a thing as being too into it. I mean, I was definitely touched in special places … that was sort of the nature of the world we were inhabiting. While in real life I would probably draw a healthy boundary, in this film, that's the world you're committing to. Something like that happens, you use it … I wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, she grabbed my junk," I was like, "Sweet, awesome, did you get that? Is that on film? Great!"
Reach the reporter at barbara.vandenburgh@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8371. Twitter.com/BabsVan.