Channing Tatum on love, fatherhood and Magic Mike XXL

HE may be one of the world’s sexiest men, but Channing Tatum’s biggest kicks come from being with his family. Could this Hollywood hunk get any better?

Channing Tatum in Magic Mike XXL, which opens in Melbourne on July 9, 2015. Photo provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. (Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Pictures)

CAST aside any preconceived ideas — stripper-turned-Hollywood hunk Channing Tatum insists he’s really just a romantic at heart. As Magic Mike XXL prepares to hit Australian screens on Thursday, Tatum has opened up about love, fatherhood and the highly anticipated movie sequel.

Tatum — Chan to his friends — has come a long way since his days as a stripper.

Determined to make his mark on Hollywood, the spunky American southerner has carefully built up his reputation in a wide range of movie genres, ranging from action flicks (G.I. Joe and White House Down) to love stories (Dear John, The Vow) and comedies (21 and 22 Jump Street).

Last year, he earned critical acclaim for his work in Foxcatcher and now he’s back with a film that could be the biggest box-office smash of his career: Magic Mike XXL.

But, he says, Foxcatcher and Magic Mike XXL are like “night and day”.

“You can’t have a better time working on a film than having a good time hanging out with great guys and girls like we did on XXL,” Tatum says.

“Foxcatcher was an ordeal in a lot of ways. It was emotionally and physically draining and it’s hard for me to even talk about it. My knees still hurt from working on it and it was just a very intense time. I probably won’t do a film like that again for a while.”

The sequel to 2012’s unexpected hit Magic Mike, the XXL version takes us to a stripper convention in Las Vegas where Mike (Tatum) returns to action after quitting the biz — joined by Ken (Matt Bomer), Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello) and Tito (Adam Rodriguez). There is also a healthy amount of female beauty on display in the shape of Elizabeth Banks, Amber Heard, Jada Pinket Smith and Andie MacDowell.

“It’s not really a convention like a few hundred or thousand lawyers or doctors getting together and attending panels about complicated legal or medical issues,” Tatum laughs.

“Strippers aren’t holding panel discussions about dance techniques or penis-enhancing drugs or technology. It’s more of a big show where you have maybe 50 to a 100 strippers appearing in one arena where there are a few thousand women screaming at you.

“I remember being there and the women are basically attacking you. You’d be giving a woman a lap dance and suddenly she will grab your butt. It’s a completely crazy time.”

For Tatum, who brought the original story to life based on his own days as stripper, Magic Mike XXL is a fresh take on the camaraderie that endeared audiences to him and his fellow buff bodies.

“We never expected the first film to have the kind of the success it did and after it came out we all knew that we would probably get around to doing another one,” Tatum says.

“I’m also very proud that we made Magic Mike outside the studio system with not a lot of money, and it was still able to find an audience and people really seemed to enjoy it.

“It’s a project that’s obviously close to my heart because I lived that life for a while and so much of the story is drawn from my own experiences and impressions of that world.

“It’s very personal to me and I wanted to explore different aspects of the characters and give audiences a real good time and meet their expectations.”

Tatum says we get to know the guys better this time.

“It’s more a of a buddy movie and a lot lighter in tone than the first one.

“There’s more humour and I also wanted people to see what their lives were like apart from their work so you can understand their thinking and perspective. I lived that kind of world and it’s not easy sometimes and you had to be tough or the job just eats you up.”

He describes co-star Joe Manganiello as amazing in this latest film.

“Joe is going to blow everyone away in this film. His moves are beyond description and women will be screaming his name wherever he goes. I’m not kidding. I couldn’t believe how good his moves were. I had no answer to that. I don’t know what he was doing, but he must have been practising a lot more than the rest of us.”

Tatum, who told GQ last year that he was a high-functioning alcoholic, recalls “a lot of heavy drinking” from his days as a stripper working various clubs in Florida before deciding to get out of that life and work as a model for Abercrombie & Fitch in New York and other fashion labels.

Now that he’s established as a Hollywood star, the 35-year-old Alabama native is also taking more time looking after his wife, 34-year-old actor Jenna Dewan (The Mindy Project, Witches of East End), who he met on the set of the dance movie, Step Up, in 2006, and their two-year-old daughter, Everly.

He says fatherhood is the most beautiful adventure he’s ever taken.

“It’s opened up a whole new world for me and it’s made me look at my life and work in a completely different way.

“When I say my daughter is the light of my life, it’s not a cliche. It’s real. My wife and daughter are my heart and soul and I want to accomplish so much for them and give them the happiest life I possibly can.”

He says the most surprising thing about his role as a new dad is the joy he gets from watching Everly “and how she laughs at you and plays with you”.

“I didn’t really know until she started getting older how incredibly smart little kids are in their own way. They pick up on a lot of things and they learn very fast.

“But the biggest kick I get out of being with my daughter is just watching her face and seeing her beautiful smile. It’s just pure joy.”

Tatum, voted People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2012, admits that even those in Hollywood find it difficult juggling work and family.

“It’s tough not to be there as much as you would like to. Even when I am home, sometimes I’ll be thinking about work or other things and I don’t feel as if I’m giving my wife and daughter enough of my time and spirit. But you learn to figure out a better way of making sure that you’re fulfilling your responsibilities as a family man and that you don’t get too caught up
in your work.

“I’ve always been very ambitious and it’s easy for me to just focus on a film and let everything else slide by. But I can’t do that anymore and I won’t. I also won’t be a happy man if I feel I’m neglecting my family.

“You feel like you’re building something when you start a family and I intend to become an even better man and better husband and father as time goes on.”

It is far cry from assumptions many may have that Tatum could have been an inveterate womaniser in his younger days.

“I can understand that but that is so far away from who I was or who I am. I was raised in the kind of family where I was taught to respect women, be a true gentleman, and believe in love and romance. I never wanted to ever treat women like objects or have one-night stands even though I could have lived that kind of life. But that’s just empty sex and that never interested me.

“Meeting my wife, Jenna, was the greatest thing that could have happened to me. I looked for true romance and the real thing when it came to love. When I met her, I knew that I had met a woman I wanted to spend my life with. I’m a much better man because of her.”

Sigh. Tatum recently laid himself bare to Reddit users, who had the chance to ask him questions for an hour.

The result was hilarity. He suggested to one Step Up fan that they needed to keep watching the movie as many times as it took them to realise how bad his acting was in it, that his preferred superpower would be the ability to wish people naked and that his XXL co-star Matt Bomer’s eyes are made of “dreams and rainbows and amazingness”.

As a kid, Tatum was pushed by his family to excel at sports in order to combat attention deficit disorder. He eventually became a top football player, attending university in West Virginia and later in Florida on a full athletic scholarship. As part of his passion for fitness, Tatum later took up martial arts and is proficient in kung-fu and krav maga.

Now Tatum admits he still has the mindset of an over-achiever.

“I had a hard time studying when I was young and I had to fight to overcome a lot of negative perceptions about my intelligence and what I could achieve in life.

“That kind of thing always stays with you. You want to keep proving yourself and keep exceeding others’ expectations of you. I still feel that way.

“I’ve worked very hard for everything I have in life and even if I’ve had some success in this business, I still have huge ambitions for the future and the kinds of films I wanted to make as a producer or director.

“I’m just getting started.”

Magic Mike XXL opens in cinemas on Thursday

Originally published as Channing Tatum on love, fatherhood and Magic Mike XXL