Our latest Take Ten with Deadline guest is Channing Tatum.
Tatum joined us at Deadline HQ in LA to talk about his latest film Roofman. In the video interview, he talks real-life crime, snacks, nudity, and stunts, among other things.
In Roofman, directed by Derek Cianfrance, Tatum stars as Jeffrey Manchester — a real-life criminal with a story so incredible, even Tatum didn’t believe it when he first read the script.
Manchester escaped from prison where he was serving a 45-year sentence for a series of restaurant break-ins where he entered via the roof — hence the nickname ‘roofman’. Following his prison break, he then lived undetected inside a Toys ‘R’ Us store for six months. He was so successful at this venture that he even managed to form a relationship with one of the store’s employees (played by Kirsten Dunst in the film) and to get in touch with his old pal from the military, Steve (LaKeith Stanfield).
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In the interview, Tatum also details how he and Cianfrance handled “the stuff” that was inadvertently revealed in a hilarious nude scene opposite Peter Dinklage, playing the store manager. “There were a lot of shenanigans,” Tatum laughs. Then there’s the crazy stunt he did that never made it into the film, and the story of how he got into realistically skinny shape for the role of a convict on-the-run.
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“He had to be pretty athletic to get on these roofs and to get in holes and hide in places,” Tatum says of his physical transformation. “So, I didn’t want to be some big thick-neck gym-head guy. I wanted to lean down. I had just done a movie where I was kind of a fat dad bod. And for me, that’s about 240lbs. So that’s cheeseburgers and Domino’s pizzas and Coors Lights for about a month and a half. And that got me up to about 240 real quick, and I can put it on really quick. I used to be able to take it off really quickly. And now it doesn’t happen so quickly anymore! But in about three and-a-half months, I took off almost 65, 70 pounds.”
He also describes the relationship he forged with the real Manchester via prison phonecalls, and their shared conversations as Tatum prepared to play him. “There’s obviously a reason why he chose a toy store to hide in,” Tatum says. “He kind of is a big kid. He just wants to play all the time. And Jeff is excitable. Derek would always joke about if he was going to kill an ant, he would do it with a sledgehammer. He’s just a little bit extra, just a little too much. If he loves you, he’s going to love you a little too much. I truly found myself just genuinely liking this human and knowing that he’s done the things that he’s done, I still really, really have a lot of hope for him.”
Tatum also recalls some fun times on the set of 21 Jump Street and tells us everything he’s excited for us to see in Avengers: Doomsday next year, in which he resumes his role of Gambit, a character he describes thus: “He liked women. He smoked, he drank. He would steal stuff. His moral compass was very gray. He was never going to be a villain. He didn’t have the heart to be a villain, but he wasn’t exactly a hero. And I think that’s very human.”
Click on the video to hear it all first-hand from Channing Tatum.
Roofman is in theaters from October 10.