Jada Pinkett Smith will join the predominately male cast of Magic Mike XXL, the forthcoming sequel to Magic Mike. In both films, Channing Tatum portrays Mike, a male stripper who teaches a younger performer “how to party, pick up women and make easy money.”
Jada Pinkett Smith will not strip in the film but she gives Channing Tatum and director Gregory Jacobs kudos for wanting to turn an originally male character into a female (her role is presumed to be a strip club owner). News of Jada Pinkeett Smith joining the Magic Mike XXL cast seems to conflict with another job she’s been working on — a CNN documentary which reveals that strip clubs “are often a breeding ground for sex traffickers.” She said she “missed” the turn when stripping became a glorified profession. “The stripping culture was not glorified when I was growing up. If you were stripping there was a problem. You were on drugs or something was wrong. Where as today, that’s not it. Girls look at strippers and go, ‘Yo, I want that!’”
