It’s been an amazing year for Channing Tatum and he’s rounding out 2014 with a cover spot in the December issue of Esquire magazine.
Regarding his prep work for “Magic Mike XXL,” the “She’s the Man” hunk explains that he had to do a lot of naked dance rehearsals- “There are a lot of apologies. A lot of ‘I’m sorry that ran into your chin’ and ‘Let me take my thigh off your neck.’
Channing also tells the publication that his pursuit of acting started while growing up in Tampa, Florida. “It’s the best city in America for fourteen-year-olds with parents who work. There was always some place to go, some house to go into, some alley to go down, roof to climb around, or fence to jump.”
“I wanted to dance. I just didn’t know anything. Neither did the girls I was seeing. But their moms did. I figured out the fastest way for me to learn to dance was to grab up some abuela and get her moving on the porch.”
And when he decided to move to California, Channing found himself a bit bored initially. “I didn’t do much when I first got there. I was a roofer for a while. It was mostly long days and hours, and hours at night spent in dance clubs. I mostly learned to dance by hanging out in clubs and grinding on girls. Women, cars, alleys. Fun one night, then ugly, too.”
Once he scored a gig as a model, everything started falling into place. “The travel schedule, the food, the demands brought things together for me. That was a full day, with expectations every day. I’d never had that. Suddenly, every hour of the day was accounted for. Busy. And I never want to be without that again.”
As for his new film “Foxcatcher,” Channing notes, “I no longer consider myself a practitioner of martial arts. But wrestling is nothing like that, anyway. In wrestling, there is no retreat. No way to slow things down. In wrestling, you advance and advance, and being tired is just a lie to make the other guy think he can relax. It’s so hard, harder than anything I’ve ever done.”
