Los Angeles, Feb 9 (IANS) Actress Salma Hayek Pinault, who stars as Maxandra Mendoza in ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’, says her co-stars were “such great guys” who “were all hanging out with me” while filming.
The 56-year-old actress told ‘People’ she became good friends with her castmates who play the various strippers and, eventually, so did her husband French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault.
“My husband is not a jealous man,” she says.
“I used to call him all the time (from set) and say, ‘Oh my God, I feel so bad,’ because I had this predisposition about how the guys, the strippers were going to be. But they’re not. They’re lovely. They’re such great guys. And (my husband) goes, ‘Oh God, you’re becoming best friends with the strippers, aren’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yes!'”
“And then he came a couple of times to the set. There was especially one who would come and ask him advice for business. He spoke French and he knew everything about Francois. He says, ‘I’m a big fan.’ He reacted more to Francois than to me!”
He adds: “By the end of the movie, they all came to the house. They were all hanging out with me. Then Francois was saying, ‘You’re right, they’re adorable, they’re lovely.'”
In the movie, Salma plays a wealthy socialite who, mid-divorce, sets out to create a liberating stage show in a stuffy London theatre. Maxandra enlists the expertise of Channing Tatum’s ‘Magic’ Mike Lane after a chance meeting in Miami, and he assembles a crew of innovative dancers to pull off the steamy spectacle.
She also says that working with costar Tatum, 42, was a delight: She “found him to be a real gentleman.”
“He’s like a Southern gentleman and he cares about that. Because he’s so cool and goofy and funny. He can be that. Or he can also be very smart and intense and focused.”
“He’s always kind. … And I told him, I said, ‘Your mom taught you well.’ I think that normally comes, most of the times, from the mother. I think that is true.”
She adds, “He’s very respectful and he’s very thoughtful.”
The actress and Pinault, 60, began dating in 2006 and welcomed their daughter, Valentina, now 15, the following year. They wed in Paris in 2009 and nine years later, Pinault surprised the Oscar nominee with a surprise vow renewal in Bora Bora.
–IANS
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