Filming of the new Magic Mike movie doesn’t sound like it’s going well. The bombshell news dropped this week that Thandiwe Newton had been dropped from the cast, despite the crew already filming for 11 days.
As per Variety, Salma Hayek has been tapped to join the cast instead, which isn’t a bad replacement to get. That might have been the end of it, but other reports are emerging that Newton was fired for getting into a heated argument with Channing Tatum on set.
What could these two vastly different stars possibly be getting so worked up about? The Will Smith and Chris Rock incident of course. According to The Sun, the fight between the pair escalated to such “unimaginably vicious” levels that Tatum even stormed off the London set of Magic Mike’s Last Dance, driving furiously off in a car.
It remains unclear exactly when the argument took place and whose side both took. Was Newton supporting Smith’s slap? Did Tatum insist Rock’s joke was harmless?
“Channing Tatum is the producer and number one on set. Thandie Newton is the number two star,” a source told The Sun. “They fell out over the debacle at The Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation. It was a tense exchange of words, but suddenly it escalated. Channing got into this car and he disappeared.”
Following their argument, Tatum allegedly refused to continue working with Newton, despite the reported attempts by director Steven Soderbergh to fix the situation. “After the row he just went, ‘I am not working with her anymore.’ Him being a producer, it’s his movie, so she’s off the movie,” the source continued.
The truth remains very murky. A spokesperson for HBO Max informed Variety that Newton actually quit the movie due to personal reasons. “Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance to deal with family matters,” the statement read. A spokesperson for the actress also told MailOnline that the report is “completely inaccurate.”
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