Why was Channing Tatum dressed up as Marilyn Monroe in "Magic Mike"?
The movie's costume designer Christopher Peterson, an Emmy nominee for his work on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," opened up to Entertainment Weekly about his struggles to construct the perfect tear-away pants, costum-made thongs and why Channing Tatum's character donned a Marilyn Monroe dress in the film.
The thongs, which a company called Pistol Pete custom-made for each star, caused a problem for some of the actors. "Magic Mike" star Matt Bomer previously told MTV that the first time he tried on his thong, things didn't go well. Peterson recalled being called into Bomer's trailer. "I said, 'You've got the wrong leg in the wrong whole,'" Peterson told EW. "I closed the door and knocked again in a couple of minutes. He's like, 'Oh, it's all good now. Houston, we have no problem."
As for the scene in which Tatum's title character Mike shows up on the Fourth of July wearing a Marilyn Monroe dress, Peterson still has no explanation. "That to this day still puzzles me. That was an idea of Channing's, and I just said 'Okay,'" Peterson told EW with a laugh. "It's something to do with the red, white, and blue, and rah-rah America. I just thought if Channing wants to get into a white Marilyn dress, rock it out. I want to see that, too."
Tatum has been doing a bit of drag recently. In an appearance on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," the actor and Fallon dressed up as girls for a faux tween talk show called "Ew."
