CEBU, Philippines - Joe Manganiello has a problem. The 37-year-old has four movies in pre-production and a documentary — “La Bare” — he directed that he’s promoting, and football season has just begun (he’s a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan). To top things off, a much-hyped video game has just been released, and, make no mistake, Manganiello is the kind of guy that gets excited about that. Oh, and did we mention he has a certain brunette distraction?
“It’s going to be really tricky for a while!” he told Yahoo with a laugh. The buff Manganiello, who rose to fame playing a werewolf on HBO’s “True Blood,” is a well documented fan of sci-fi and all that comes with it.
It makes sense then that Manganiello would be excited over the release of the video game Destiny, already the most pre-ordered game in history and projected to be the biggest video game release of the year.
So far, Manganiello’s resume includes many different kinds of stories — sci-fi, comedy (“How I Met Your Mother”), action (“Spider-Man”), romance (the upcoming Terrence Malick film “Knight of Cups” with Natalie Portman), and more. However, the star, who graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, says there’s one more genre he’d like to include.
“I started doing all classical material, so it would be nice at some point to get back to that, because I did so much of it early on in my career,” noted Manganiello, who has often worked in the theater. “I think a lot of things I’ve done in the past few years have been the complete opposite of that, so I would really like to be able to do a piece of classical material.”
Manganiello will be reprising his role in the modern classic, “Magic Mike,” about the world of male strippers, inspired by co-star Channing Tatum’s experiences stripping before stardom. The ensemble cast, also featuring Manganiello’s former college roommate, Matt Bomer, and Alex Pettyfer, will begin filming together again later this month.
“It’s like getting the band back together,” he explained. “We’re all great friends. Some of us go way back before ‘Magic Mike.’ I stayed in contact with all they guys I shot with.”
The sequel has been teased as a road trip movie with more laughs than the first. “I think the nature of a bunch of guys just hanging out, a bunch of dudes on a road trip, it’s just funny,” Manganiello said. “Male stripping to begin with is really funny and the guys that do it are really funny, charming, and charismatic.”