Joe Manganiello Talks Objectifying Men and Life After “True Blood”

Whether you know him best as Alcide on True Blood or as Big Dick Richie in Magic Mike, Joe Manganiello is moving forward, hoping to not be defined by these roles. In an interview with Buzzfeed (link below), he talks about his upcoming documentary La Bare, and some of the other things he has on the horizon, none of which are necessarily dictated by his past work. 

“I spent 10 years acting in things that only my mom was watching. Then I did this one fun, crazy, provocative show and I was on the map,” he said of True Blood. All of a sudden I started getting calls for all the shirtless roles. So it was like, OK, let’s do more of those!"

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as male objectification,” Manganiello added with a shrug when asked about his own voyeur-inviting nudity. “I think that word exists only with women because there are societal pressures for them to behave a certain way and to look a certain way. Someone put it to me once: Women are sex objects and men are success objects. That was really interesting to me.”

“It was all about getting to this point I’m at right now — every actor dreams of getting the right job at the right time on the right show that pops them out, and that happened five years ago for me. So, those five years were spent with my head down, blinders on; total tunnel vision. I was going to squeeze every drop out of True Blood, and I can look back and say, with confidence, that I got everything out of that experience I possibly could. That got me to right now, which is the spot I always dreamed of being in.”

With the final season of True Blood set to air this coming Sunday, and La Bare set to be released in theaters this summer, the future actually looks brighter than ever for Joe.

Via Buzzfeed