'Magic Mike's Last Dance' director defends the decision to have 'no nudity' or 'even a thong' in the movie: 'It's not about the sex'

• "Magic Mike's Last Dance" director Steven Soderbergh explained in an interview why the film lacks nudity.
• "What's sexy is intimacy and genuine emotion," Soderbergh added.

Once "Magic Mike's Last Dance" hits theaters on Friday, audiences might notice something conspicuously missing from the film: nudity.

The director, Steven Soderbergh, recently weighed in on the R-rated movie, which stars Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault and follows the pair as they attempt to put on a male revue at a London theater.

Although the movie features male strippers once again, they mostly keep their pants on this time.

"To me, it's about sexy," Soderbergh told Rolling Stone. "It's not about the sex, per se, and whether the movie is explicit. There's no nudity in 'Out of Sight.' There's no nudity in 'Magic Mike's Last Dance.' There's not even a thong. And yet, it was our desire to make a sexy movie."

Soderbergh added: "What's sexy is intimacy and genuine emotion. Something that feels alive, and electric, and has the potential for vulnerability. That can be sexy."

Critics are divided on whether Soderbergh's swan song for the Magic Mike franchise successfully achieves that, as the film currently has a 57% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Tatum, however, has previously been vocal about almost not appearing in the film because of the diet and workout demands required to achieve that on-screen physique.

According to Men's Health, the actor rehearsed the movie's dance routines in a garage in the San Fernando Valley between two and three hours a day before doing cardio and working out late a night.

"It's hard to look like that," Tatum said on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" in February 2022. "Even if you do work out, to be that kind of in shape is not natural. That's not even healthy. You have to starve yourself. I don't think when you're that lean, it's actually healthy."