How Joe Manganiello turned being a 'compulsive math nerd' into “Deal or No Deal Island” job

It’s normal to be a bit daunted when you first meet Joe Manganiello up close in person. For one thing, the mega-buff 6-foot-5 frame immediately fills almost any room — or, in this case, Deal or No Deal Island Banker's Temple set just outside of Panama’s Bocas del Toro. Throw in the fact that the 48-year-old is famous for playing, among other things, a werewolf as well as a stripper named Big Dick Richie, and one can’t help but be slightly on the cautious side upon introduction. Which is what makes the actual meeting so disarming when the star struts into the Temple and turns out to be so… normal.

Manganiello may have gotten viewers all hot and bothered in steamy projects like True Blood and Magic Mike, but now it is the contestants under his watchful eye as Deal or No Deal Island host that are feeling the heat as they compete for ungodly sums of money under the glaring Temple lights. But even with all that pressure, the players have found an unlikely ally in the game master standing by their side.

“He is this guy who comes off big, scary, and intimidating, but he is just a nerd,” says one of the season 2 cast members, Alexis Lete. “He loves to just be himself. He loves cracking jokes. He's witty, he's funny, and he has a really kind heart.”

Like the rest of the cast, Lete was shocked at how down to earth and approachable Manganiello was throughout filming on season 2, which premieres Jan. 7 on NBC. “He is so not superficial,” Lete continues. “He's so over all of the glitz and glam and different people trying to use and abuse. I'm constantly trying to break the stereotype of what people think about me based off the way I look, and I feel like he's doing the same.”

For an established actor of Manganiello’s caliber, hosting a new hybrid reality-adventure-meets-game-show entry was certainly a risk in terms of how Hollywood purists would react to such a move. However — not unlike on Deal or No Deal Island itself — big risks often pay off, and the thespian has shined in his new role, winning over new fans in the process. The game master has leaned on his dramatic background to display gravitas when necessary, but has also paired it with a natural sense of geeked-out fun that is simply impossible to resist.

Entertainment Weekly sat down in Panama with Manganiello (who also serves as an executive producer) during filming on season 2 to get the inside story into why he took the plunge into the reality competition hosting waters, how his style differs from others, and what to expect in season 2.

Related: First footage of Parvati Shallow and Dr. Will Kirby on Deal or No Deal Island unveiled

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How would you describe your hosting style? It does feel different to me from some of the others out there.

JOE MANGANIELLO: I think it’s making people feel like they can trust you, but also— coming from a classical theater background — understanding where the stories are. And then with backgrounds in improv and documentaries, not being afraid for the story to unfold and not to interfere with it at all. It's like My Octopus Teacher. I'm not here to interfere with nature. I'm here to observe and I'm here to be a field general for the rest of the producers and the production to get what we need in order to make the most compelling story and try to help push that magnifying glass somewhere.

And also, this is just a random weird fact, but I was a compulsive math nerd. My whole life, numbers are very comforting. I was great at math. I almost had it perfect on the math SATs. So there's a math brain mixed with a theater brain mixed with a documentarian mixed with a Survivor junkie. So that was in the gumbo pot when I got here. And I think from there it was just figuring out what kind of host I was going to be.

When Boston Rob hit that $1.5 million target in season 1 with the crossbow, I realized: Oh, I'm not a referee who's just going to put his hands in the air that the field goal was good. I'm out there high-fiving the players because I just can't believe what I just watched. And so I'm a bit more interactive maybe than the other hosts. I get to ride the roller coaster. And being a host where there's this ominous Banker floating somewhere allows me the position where I'm on their team, but I also am an agent of chaos. I want you to be scared when you should be scared, and I want you to rise up in the face of adversity when it's time to do that as well. I'm like Dad on a vacation with the kids — we're having fun, but then all of a sudden dad has to be dad.

Related: Boston Rob explains taking that huge Deal or No Deal Island gamble

Even after 25 years, there are still people in Hollywood who thumb their nose at the reality competition genre. When you took the job, did you have any trepidation about how people in the industry were going to view that?

I'd gotten to a place in my career where I didn't care what anybody else thought. If it's the right job for me and I know that I could do a great job, then who cares? Once branding became a thing for performers and they became very concerned with all of that — as a Gen X person who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and classical theater, that wasn't really ever my concern. It was just telling a good story. My heart and my mind were in the right place with this, where I just thought, “They're calling the right person. I would love to run this. I know how to run this. I can't think of anybody else who they should hire instead of me.” And all I want is to make the best show possible for people at home. There's entertainment that makes people think about their life, and there's entertainment that takes people away from how difficult life is. And I knew that this could absolutely be something that could take people's mind off of life.

But, also, there are really heartfelt moments that I try to inject last season, like talking to Jordan about what she would do with the money if she won, and she had had real difficulty getting pregnant, and the bills were piling up ,and she wanted to do IVF and she was very open about that with tears in her eyes. There are things about this that transcend being a game show where you're really dealing with human beings, and there's a part of me that's like, that's what I want to turn on the TV and see. I want to have fun and then have these really poignant moments. And I think it does have the capacity to do that.

I don't think that I'm being a crazy person for saying that. I don't know if it's the stigma coming off of hosting for actors. I mean, American actors can do American commercials, and when I came to LA in 2000, if you were a film actor, you couldn't do TV, so you had to choose one or the other. And then HBO happens and we start rethinking what TV could be. And then for those that golden age of HBO, all those shows were better than everything in the movie theaters. And I was part of that wave. And so that got de-stigmatized. And being on a TV show is actually more prestigious than being in movies.

And then again, it's like, well now you're getting commercials, so you're allowed to do a commercial in the United States, and now this great hosting job comes up and it's like, I really don't even care what anybody says. I mean, it was like Magic Mike. “Are you going to do Magic Mike or not?” If Steven Soderbergh is directing, I'll do anything he says. I don't care. Am I going to do this vampire-werewolf show? If Alan Ball is writing it and Anna Paquin is acting in it, I'll do whatever they want. And we certainly had an all-star team aligned for this and I knew we were going to do it right.

Related: Joe Manganiello says the cast of True Blood was 'really, really overqualified'

You were doing on-the-job training in season 1. What did you learn while doing it that you took into season 2?

I learned a lot about the Temple, just running more games in the Temple, and the different ways that you can win in the Temple, and understanding how this game was actually different than Deal or No Deal. Something that also I realized towards the end of last season when Rob got his time penalty and all the other competitors were in the maze and it was just he and I standing there, and I turned to him and I said, “Hey, you remember the Patriots down 28-3 at halftime to the Falcons and what happened? The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. Forget about what you just did. Get your head out of that time penalty. You're going to get in that maze. You're going to make up that time. This is going to be the greatest comeback in game show history. Get ready.”

And I realized that my job just shifted from the disciplinarian who had to give him his time penalty to pumping him up so we can have the greatest finish ever. And you realize that the role as host shifts constantly. You have to enforce the rules, you have to crack back, sometimes you have to be dad. But then in other times we're having a good time and we're laughing. It's like being a documentary filmmaker — it's knowing what's going on, but also knowing how to unfold that in the right way that allows people the opportunity to talk.

Related: Boston Rob reacts to Deal or No Deal Island copying penalty

One of the things I appreciate with your hosting is the way you handle it when there is conflict or arguments. Tell me your strategy on dealing with those situations.

I just shut my mouth. I think it's knowing when to hold ‘em, and knowing when when to fold ‘em. In those moments, there's a lot of stress in this game. People can build relationships that last a lifetime in a matter of weeks. They can build relationships in which they want to murder each other within hours of meeting each other. And I think it's just allowing everybody to be who they are.

As an actor, every actor hates the director who comes up and gives you a line reading and tells you how to say that thing. And I love directors like Steven Soderbergh who really don't say anything to you. They want to see what you're going to bring to the table. There's a silent contract that happens between a director and an actor in that moment where it's up to you, you have full agency to just bring creatively what you want, and he almost is psychically giving you permission to do that by not really giving you any notes.

And so I try to host that way, where I allow people to just be who they are and have the relationships that they have. Now, with that said, I'm also going to give them a forum. If they need to say something, say it now. And sometimes people are hesitant to say that. And part of my job is to make them understand that if you want to say something, this is the place to do it and you should say it. And I've got your back if you want to say that. And also kind of subtly allowing people to understand that the audience is going to want to hear this, too.

Related: Deal or No Deal Island season 2 cast includes Parvati Shallow and Dr. Will Kirby (exclusive)

You were running the Temple all last season, and then Howie Mandel shows up as the Banker in the finale and you have to change your dynamic a bit. What was that adjustment like?

I think in that moment, all the guests realized I was on their side against the Banker. And so there's a relationship between me and the contestants where I want to see them win. I want to see them take the Banker's money. That doesn't affect my paycheck at all, how much they take home, so let me help you as a blackjack dealer at a casino telling you the odds, advising you as to the numbers, a sounding board to bounce things off of. Because I want you to take as much of that Banker's money as possible, even though they've hired me to put this thing together. And so again, it's me, but it's a bit of a character at the same time.

What makes you most excited about season 2?

I just think it's season 1 times 10. We went away and we looked at what worked, and we looked at what didn't work, and we really thought about the players and the audience at home. It's everything that they love from the first season, just improved. We've tightened it up. And sorry to everybody in the season 1 cast, which was amazing, but the season 2 cast is on a whole other level. And we knew that from the submissions. When we were going through the submissions, we were all calling each other like, “Oh my God, can you believe this?!” We couldn't wait to see these people in action.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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