Diversions writer Josh Magness sat down with Stephen “tWitch” Boss, who plays dancer Malik in Magic Mike XXL. Having made his name on So You Think You Can Dance, Boss brings a stunning display of skills to the up-beat sequel. He talked about what it was like to rehearse incessantly with Channing Tatum, what drew him to dance as a kid and how tough it was to stop eating Southern food.
When did you first get the information you were going to be in this movie, or when did you first hear about it, and what was your reaction? Specifically with the dancing?
The reaction was all excitement and a little bit of nervous energy, too. Because you have to think strategically about what’s going to happen in the future. Like, my family is going to see this, or my family is not gonna see this. My in-laws are going to see this, or they are not going to see this. That type of thing. But I got the news Channing Tatum and his wife Jenna are huge fans of So You Think You Can Dance and Jenna actually did a guest judge spot on one of the episodes and we kind of got to talking. She let me know that a sequel for Magic Mike had been greenlit and that they were tossing around ideas … and later I had a meeting with Channing and the director, Gregory Jacobs, and they asked me if I was interested, and of course, I was absolutely interested.
How was it rehearsing for the final big dance number you and Channing did?
It was tedious, but it was great. We had our choreographer, Alison Faulk; she did an incredible job. She also did the first one, and she’s back with this one so she had a great rapport with all the guys and then she really did a good job in filling the concept out from a broad idea to how we could actually do it.
And would you say you both have an input, like when dances are being choreographed could someone say, “You know, I think this would work well for me” or is it mostly just the choreographer?
Of course. I mean, she definitely did a bulk of all the moves but it was a collaborative effort in certain things, like maybe I feel a bit better doing this or sometimes she would ask, “What would you do right here?” and we could fill in from there.
What would you say was the most challenging scene for you to do or the most challenging part of the movie overall?
The most challenging moment was the finale definitely. Because, for the solo scene I had, that was more of a structured improv. I did it a little bit differently every single take, because I had the room to do that and had room to play, whereas the finale, especially with the concept that it was, things had to be absolutely perfect down to the angle to the head focus to where our hats lie.
Could you estimate how many takes it took?
Oh man, so many. But not so many because we kept messing up or anything, it was just because they really had a specific vision of how they wanted to catch it so there was a lot of angles. I’m not sure how many, but we did a lot.
What would you say was the hardest part of changing diet and activities to get ready for this?
We were taping in Savannah, Georgia, you know where … in the South food is a huge, main character of the south, right? That alone was just like, man I couldn’t drink sweet tea, I couldn’t eat any fried foods, and I’m from the South so it’s like I come home and I want some comfort, some country cooking, and I couldn’t have any of it, so I think that was the hardest part.
When did you first start acting and what draws you to acting while still doing dancing?
What drew me to acting was performance, and funny enough, in a very roundabout way, acting and theater is actually how I stumbled upon dance and figuring out that I could make dance a career. I’m from Montgomery, Alabama, and we had a summer camp that was like a theater camp where you would go for the entire month and put a production on in the end, and through that theater camp, I kind of learned the ins-and-outs about certain arts, and I was just drawn to dance. But it was acting and dancing I was the strongest at and that I loved the most. I got cast in a musical as a dancer through that camp and it just went from there because I found out that people went to dance studios, and there were dance camps and dance teams and all these things that started to make sense in how I could expand on that.
How was it working with Donald Glover, an actor and musician?
Yeah, he’s a good dude, man — super inspiring because he was working hard. He came in and created some original music for the movie and…
So he created all the things he sang?
The things he did he created, yeah, and he created them right when he got there. While he’s doing that he was working on tons of other things. Just being surrounded by ultra-talented people like that is just so inspiring.
What would you say is the biggest takeaway you’ve gained from this experience?
To go with the flow, man. To ride the ride, to ride the wave. You can hustle as much as you want, and that’s great and that’s going to help you create opportunities and things like that, but then you just got to trust yourself with time and things are gonna happen.
