‘Magic Mike’ Star Alex Pettyfer Soaks up the Sun in Nautical Pre-Lockdown Throwback

Actor Alex Pettyfer stunned fans in a recent throwback photo from before the coronavirus pandemic. Pettyfer shared a picture of himself lounging on a boat in a slim black bathing suit, writing that he was “missing these days,” along with the hashtag “lockdown.” Like many people, Pettyfer wishes he could get out of the house and back to his everyday life.

Pettyfer squinted at the camera through the sunlight in his new photo, which picked up over 72,000 likes on Instagram. The Magic Mike star had his tattoos on full display, all across his chest and one arm. He tagged the photo in Berlin, Germany, indicating the was out on the water somewhere near there. Now that the temperatures are dropping and COVID-19 cases are on the rise, Pettyfer is not the only one wishing he could get out into nice weather for a day on the water.

“Stay strong! These times shall pass!” one fan commented, while another wrote: “I surely understand you Alex!” Many others ignored Pettyfer’s wistful caption, focusing instead on the picture itself. One commenter wrote: “I love your tattoos,” and Patrick Schwarzenegger asked Pettyfer if he was talking about “Magic Mike days??”

For many fans, Pettyfer will also be Adam from Magic Mike, first and foremost. Pettyfer hails from England, the son of two theatre actors, and has gone into the entertainment industry as a model, actor, producer and podcaster. Now 30 years old, he is a far cry from the wide-eyed young man he played in 2012.

Pettyfer starred alongside Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaughey and Matt Bomer in Magic Mike — a comedy-drama about the intense world of male stripping. While Tatum tended to get top billing on the movie, Pettyfer’s character was really at the center of the plot. He played 19-year-old Adama, a newcomer to the profession seeking guidance from more experienced performers.

Pettyfer briefly dated his co-star Riley Keough after they met while filming Magic Mike. The two split up eventually, but Pettyfer would go on to have a starring role in Elvis & Nixon — a movie about Keough’s grandfather, Elvis Presley. Pettyfer played Presley’s one-time manager, Jerry Schilling, in the 2016 comedy-drama.

While most of his co-stars returned, Pettyfer sat out the sequel, Magic Mike XXL. He never explained why, though in a 2012 interview with Oh La La Magazine he did share some of his general feelings on show business itself. He said: “I felt like the industry was just a factory. You hear a lot of people say they want to make art in this industry, but so few people actually f—ing do it. I was disillusioned by Hollywood at the time, but now I’ve come to accept that’s just the way things are: it’s called show business, not show art.”