James Marsden regrets turning down ‘Magic Mike’ role

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 (UPI) — James Marsden says he regrets turning down the movie Magic Mike.

The 43-year-old actor revealed in the October issue of GQ magazine that he passed on a role in the 2012 film with Channing Tatum because of self-doubt.

“Soderbergh is one of my favorites,” Marsden said of Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh. “But I didn’t know if I trusted myself to be good enough in this to not have my two dozen lines end up on the editing-room floor. I’d look like a naked extra in this movie.”

“It’s perfect the way it worked out, but that’s one of the only ones I’m like, ‘Hmm.’ I didn’t know it was gonna be the massive success that it was,” he admitted.

Magic Mike earned over $167 million on a $7 million budget and inspired the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL. Marsden had previously discussed turning down the movie in a 2013 interview with Independent.ie.

“I did turn it down but it wasn’t the lead role,” he revealed at the time. “There were a variety of reasons why I did, mostly a scheduling conflict. It wasn’t a sexy reason. It wasn’t, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be jumping around in a thong.’ I really had no problem with that at all.”

Marsden is instead known for starring as Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, in the X-Men films and as Corny Collins in the 2007 remake of Hairspray. He will play Teddy Flood on the new HBO series Westworld, which premieres Oct. 2.