the actor Thandwe Newton She denied reports that she was fired from the new Magic Mike movie after a feud over Will Smith with co-star Channing Tatum.
Newton said she left the film after 11 days of filming in London of her own volition.
“Thandwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Last Dance Magic Mike to deal with family matters,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
The actor’s representatives described reports that she was fired by Tatum, who is also a producer of the film, as “completely inaccurate.”
The report, which first appeared in The Sun, indicated that Tatum and Newton had an argument while discussing the incident at the Academy Awards last month, in which Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage, after a joke about his wife’s alopecia.
He described the source of the dispute as “confrontation” and added that Tatum said, “I no longer work with her.”
Salma Hayek will take on the role of Newton.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance sees Tatum return to the role of male stripper Mike Lane, as well as a return to the franchise by original director, Steven Soderbergh, who came out for the second film.
The two films grossed more than $300 million at the global box office. Profitable theater show, Magic Mike Live, shows in Las Vegas, London, Berlin and Australia.
Speaking to People magazine, Tatum expressed hope that the new movie would be like “Super Bowl of stripping,” with much higher quality routines than previously seen.
He also described the films as “very feminine” and stressed the importance of a strong female role for him.
“I want to have an equal, if not more central, female character so that Mike can play with it and almost…I don’t want to say, [to have her] Take the stick, but let the movie be about a female experience and not that of Mike, because it was so much about Mike and the experiences of men.”
Newton is currently starring opposite Chris Pine in the Amazon hit All the old knives.