Thandiwe Newton has outright denied a British tabloid report that she was fired from the London-based “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” production after an alleged argument with co-star Channing Tatum about the dustup at this year’s Oscars.
“This report is completely inaccurate” was the entirety of a statement provided to the Daily Mail, which cited a spokesperson for the actress.
The Mail was referring to a story by rival The Sun, which reported this week that Newton and Tatum had a running conflict regarding Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. Citing an anonymous person who claimed to be working on the set, the report said the exchange got so heated that Tatum — the franchise star and film’s producer — drove off, saying he was through working with Newton.
A U.S. rep for Newton did not immediately respond to messages sent Thursday. Warner Bros. said Wednesday that she “made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ to deal with family matters,” and had no immediate update Thursday.
Salma Hayek will be taking over the female lead role in the threequel that includes Tatum and the original filmmaking team, including director Steven Soderbergh. The film has no debut date, though plans are to exclusively release it on HBO Max.