Channing Tatum’s confession about Fly Me To The Moon co-star Scarlett Johansson: ‘Annoy her’

Channing Tatum has lifted the lid on working with Scarlett Johansson – including his on set habit that left her “agitated”.

Channing Tatum, by his own admission, isn’t the easiest person to work with in Hollywood.

The actor, who stars in the sharp new comedy-drama Fly Me To The Moon, couldn’t help but “constantly mess” with his co-star, Scarlett Johansson, during filming.

Given that their on-screen characters – NASA Apollo 11 launch director Cole Davis and marketing maven Kelly Jones, who’s enlisted to “sell the moon” to the waning American public – are already at odds as they repeatedly clash on the project, it turned out to be a useful tool to achieve realism.

“I just tried to annoy her as much as I possibly could, as much as humanly possible,” Tatum, 44, told news.com.au.

“It basically worked perfectly on set because they’re like, “and roll!” – and she’s already agitated,” Johansson chimed in, detailing how he’d find specific ways to annoy her.

“Suddenly, I’d just feel like a little weird finger go up the back of my wig, and I was like, ‘oh God, what are you doing right there?’”.

Tatum added: “And I’m like, ‘I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you!’ It’s … little dumb things like that.”

Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in Fly Me To The Moon.

It’s clear this isn’t just a PR “chemistry” shtick. For the better part of the first full minute of our short allocated interview slot, both actors are in a fit of giggles.

“Sorry, that was really funny,” a still-laughing Tatum apologised, referencing a funny off-camera moment, while Johansson sheepishly echoed: “Sorry!”

Behind-the-scenes shenanigans aside, the Magic Mike actor was full of praise for his high-profile co-star, who, in his words, is more “gracefully powerful” than most.

It’s a trait shared with Johansson’s powerhouse, quick-thinking, sharp-witted on-screen persona.

“I think [Kelly] is very much … you, without being you, in a way,” Tatum told Johansson during their news.com.au interview.

“You’re always kind of one step ahead of most people, in my experience. I would always feel like I did not want to get into a verbal joust with you.”

Tatum admitted he was constantly “messing” with his co-star.

Tatum went on: “I’d be like, ‘I’m just not going to win this one. This is just bad. This is stupid. Chan, shut up’.

“I would say [Johansson] probably just pulled [inspiration] from herself. I don’t really know very many people that are as gracefully powerful as she is.”

Johansson, for her part, admitted: “I’m on guard, constantly.”

Set during the 1960s Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the romantic comedy-drama loosely follows historical fact as it delivers a fictional love story at the heart of the NASA operation that saw Neil Armstrong and co. successfully land on the moon.

Fly Me To The Moon, directed by Greg Berlanti, features an all-star cast including Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson, and will premiere in Australian theatres this Thursday, July 11.