Staying camera-ready for a “male stripper odyssey” amidst southern hospitality in south Georgia is not easy.
“It’s been pretty tortuous to be around all this incredible cooking and an open container policy while trying to maintain an ideal body fat ratio,” Bomer said while accepting an award at the Savannah Film Festival Sunday night, on a night off from the nearby set of “Magic Mike XXL”.
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It was just one of Bomer’s laugh lines while accepting a “Rising Star” award in the two-minute video above.
Despite an early call time Monday on the set of the stripper sequel, Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Donald Glover, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez, and dancer Stephen “tWitch” Boss came to the Trustees Theater in downtown Savannah Sunday night as Bomer received honors before a screening of Bennett Miller‘s awards season contender “Foxcatcher.” “Magic Mike” creative force Channing Tatum is the star.
It also stars Bomer’s “The Normal Heart” co-star and on-screen love Mark Ruffalo.
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Andra Reeve-Rabb (above right), former head of CBS’ Primetime Casting in New York, presented to Bomer. She is now on the faculty at the Savannah College of Art and Design, which produces the festival. She first read a then-unknown Bomer years ago for a CBS gig.
“I’m sure as hell way to old for a ‘Newcomer Award’ and I certainly haven’t done enough for a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’,” Bomer said. “But this is sure as hell a nice way to Ease-Into-Middle-Age-As-An-Actor Award,” he told the standing room only crowd in downtown Savannah.
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One not standing, Andre Leon Talley.
The Vogue contributing editor and fashion icon frequently works with the school (pronounced “SKAD”) and its 11,000 creative students.
Talley had the Clooney seat for “Foxcatcher”: front row corner. Fashion people do eat. He had popcorn.
After the screening, “Foxcatcher” production designer Jess Gonchor (“Moneyball,” “Inside Llewyn Davis”) stepped in for the Q&A, but even he could not enjoy the southern hospitality for long. He would be on a pre-dawn flight back to L.A. Monday morning to work on the Coen brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!”.
Manganiello was mobbed as he walked down Broughton Street, the main drag. In a demographic barometer of the film festival crowd, former professional wrestler Kevin Nash, who has his own rabid fan base of thousands and is in both “Magic Mike” films, was able to shadow the pack and avoid the flailing arms of the selfie swarm.
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The Savannah Film Festival continues through Saturday night with screenings of festival hit “Whiplash,” fellow awards contender “The Imitation Game,” Tommy Lee Jones‘ “The Homesman,” and Disney’s “Big Hero 6” amidst several buzzed about documentaries including “Red Army” and “Merchants of Doubt.”