If you thought that Joe Manganiello’s talents ended with being the beefcakiest hunk in Bon Temps, think again! Turns out, the “True Blood” actor is more than a manly pile of eye candy: beneath those rippling muscles, there lies a gifted auteur.
“La Bare,” Manganiello’s documentary film about the eponymous best little male strip club in Texas, is currently making waves at the Slamdance Film Festival, where it premiered to great acclaim — and not just because it contains copious footage of strapping men dancing in thongs, either.
Intrigued? Yeah, you are. Here’s what you need to know about Joe’s big directorial debut:
It’s A Family Affair
“La Bare” is the first film to come out of Joe Manganiello’s brand-new production company, which he founded along with his lookalike brother, Nick.
You Can Thank Big Dick Ritchie For This One
Joe readily admits that he wasn’t exactly raring to learn more about banana hammocks and nude booty-shaking until he was offered a role in Steven Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike,” prompting him to seek out a friend who had worked at La Bare in the 1990s. The conversation didn’t just inspire the actor’s performance as a well-endowed exotic dancer; it also gave him the idea to document the weird, wild world of male stripping in this film.
Don’t Let The Fancy Frenchness Fool You
The preferred pronunciation of the Dallas club’s name is a distinctly down-home “luh bear.”
‘La Bare’ Is The Place Where Stripping Stars Are Born
According to Manganiello, the stage at La Bare is where some of the best and most famous entertainers in the male stripping biz had their, um, bare beginnings.
These Guys Aren’t Afraid To Take Their Show On The Road
The dancers featured in the film didn’t stop at strutting their stuff for the cameras: they also showed up to the premiere in Park City, Utah, where their appearance (and the sudden en masse removal of their shirts) nearly caused a riot among the ladies in attendance.
‘La Bare’ Is Only The Beginning
Although he’s still got plenty of acting work ahead of him, including the reprisal of his wolfish role on the final season of “True Blood,” Joe Manganiello is absolutely planning to direct again. Among the possibilities for his next film: a documentary about Leah Joki, whose memoir “Julliard to Jail” describes how she came to run a successful prison program in which inmates perform Shakespeare plays.
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