The very first thing that I said when I walked out of Magic Mike was: “I saw Olivia Munn’s boobs.” I mean, I knew she was in the movie, but I didn’t know that she’d be topless in the first few minutes of the film. Hell, I didn’t even know that she’d be playing a bisexual trick breaking my boy Magic Mike’s heart, yo. Mad sniffles at dat restaurant scene, son.
But sure enough, for every one penis being pumped, we were treated to Munn’s bare chest, and I’d be the first person to say that, yeah, it did seem a bit gratuitous and unnecessary. Munn disagrees. As she recently told Vulture, the scene just seemed natural, because she was getting out of the shower after a hellacious threeway.
I forgot that I did that until I saw it at the premiere. The way it was shot didn’t feel gratuitous — I think that’s what every actress says, right? There are very few directors I would ever do it for. Also, my character was getting out of the shower and to keep it as realistic as possible I didn’t wear a shirt in the shower. The day of the shoot, I locked it down. I only wanted the people who absolutely had to be there. I even cleared out video village, which you’d normally forget about.
That makes sense, clear everyone out so they have to wait 10 minutes before the camera guy yells, “All right everyone, line up to the left, $5 gets you 10 seconds!”
In Munn’s defense, though, I saw her topless scene – which came at the same time as Channing Tatum’s completely unnecessary ass shot – as a message from Steven Soderbergh: “Here’s your man ass and here are your tits. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a story to tell.” At least that’s what I hope he tells the audience when he accepts Best Director.