How did channing tatum learn to dance

The actor is about how to turn from a cute stripper into a successful Hollywood star.

Richard Cohen

November 18, 2013

Channing Tatum

By five o'clock in the evening, the London pub where the interview is scheduled is filled with lovers to lay down the collar, but you still notice Channing Tatum right away. And not only because today he is one of the most successful Hollywood actors: in principle, this two-meter handsome man with the figure of a wrestler cannot be overlooked.

Tatum sat demurely at the window with his blue-eyed pit bull named Lulu. The fighting dog is wearing a pink collar with rhinestones, and this contrast is very in the spirit of her owner. Channing himself is a jock, but there is some captivating honesty and openness in his eyes. He has a rare type: a kind of gentle giant with a subtle poetic soul.

The actor is wearing jeans, a knitted hat and a black T-shirt, he lovingly spread his sweater for Lulu like a bed. Channing orders a beer. He drinks like a real man: a pint in two or three sips, and then loudly slams the glass on the table. He eats a hamburger - without a bun: in London, he is filming in a new film by the famous Wachowski brothers (the very ones who came up with the cult "Matrix") and you have to be in shape.

Although the excitement is clearly in vain, because he is in shape from an early age: already at ten he became the captain of the school rugby team and practiced kung fu three times a week.

In 2012, Tatum was named the Sexiest Man of the Year by People magazine

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan on their wedding day

“Every day, I would run miles around a bright green football field like a clockwork, and the coach’s choice swearing served as the soundtrack,” recalls Channing childhood spent in the small town of Tampa, Florida. - Actually, my father dreamed that I would study well, get an education and become, say, a lawyer. But I have attention deficit disorder, and even dyslexia. For example, it takes me five times as long to read a script as other actors. This still seems strange to many, and then I was completely written down as an idiot and even sent to a class with autistic children and those with Down syndrome. There we were constantly stuffed with pills. After them, I seemed to think faster, but they turned me into a zombie. Dexedrine, Adderall are drugs, they blow your mind. They worked well for a while, and then the side effects began: I had terrible bouts of depression and withdrawal symptoms, like after a real dose. Some teenagers after such drugs commit suicide. Luckily, at some point I just stopped taking them.”

Soon, Channing found another way to build muscle - the list of his sports hobbies was replenished with breakdancing.

“How did I learn to dance? Yes, it was the only entertainment in our outback. From the age of fifteen I secretly ran out of the house every night: I wait until a characteristic measured sound is heard from the living room - my father was snoring on the sofa so that the windows were trembling - and you can move forward. At first, my friends and I just drank beer on the beach, and then we started hanging out in nightclubs. All the prettiest girls were on the dance floor for hours and hours, and I was just an ordinary shy guy and was afraid to even look at them. At some point, I got tired of it, I learned a few movements and rushed to the girls, ”says Tatum, who has become a real thunderstorm for women up to sixteen and older.

One day that wasn't great for them, Channing left his girlfriend: having received a scholarship to a sports school in West Virginia, he left Tampa towards a great sports future. However, after the first semester, he returned: “I was simply scared of a new adult life, freaked out, failed my exams, tucked my tail and appeared on the threshold of my father’s house, like a beaten dog!”

Channing did not aspire to fame at that time: he would have been quite satisfied with the unremarkable lot of one of those guys that desperately bored American housewives secretly dream of from their husbands - a handsome young plumber, a well-built painter or a hot roofer, for example. “When I got back, I had no idea what I was going to do,” recalls Tatum. - I worked at a construction site, in a store and even in a veterinary clinic, and at night I got drunk as an insole and came off on the dance floor. I just went down the rabbit hole. Well, at least I didn’t catch anything venereal. ”

One day he heard an announcement on the radio that turned his life around one hundred and eighty degrees: “They were inviting dancers. Those who pass the test were promised fabulous money. A couple of days later, my friend and a bunch of other textured kids were already standing at the entrance to the Joy strip club. The manager of the establishment handed us thongs, oil and hair gel, and then pushed us onto the stage to the amusement of the hooting crowd of excited women: “Ladies, these are our new ones, we are thinking of getting them on the team here. How do you like them? At that moment it seemed to me that I was participating in some kind of sacrificial ceremony, but when the music started playing, I started dancing. As I remember now: it was Usher's hit You Make Me Wanna.

Since then, many people wanted Tatum: he was a dizzying success in Joy - clients came to the club to look at him. Around that time, Channing realized that a career as a handsome plumber was not enough for him, and he did not agree even to the glory of the most popular go-go dancer in Florida: “Once I broke through. I after all danced a striptease not only for the sake of money. Girls, fun until dawn is all a guy needs at eighteen. And I liked it. But I suddenly imagined myself in five or ten years - shabby, shabby, in a thong, with crumpled banknotes stuck in the elastic, and decided: we must get out of here.

Channing packed his bag and took a random trip to sunny Miami: “I have no idea why I chose this city. All I could do was dance and party. But I was sure that I would find a job in some business and make a career there.”

There were more than enough people who wanted to help a handsome guy get settled in languid Miami: on the very first day a man approached him on the street and asked if he had a “representative” — it was not worth it for a young man with such an appearance to disappear in vain. Now we will sign the contract, all the documents are ready, they are in the penthouse nearby, around the corner...

“Of course he just wanted to sleep with me,” Tatum shrugs his broad shoulders. But everything that the stranger said gave some food for thought, so a couple of days later he came to one modeling agency and practically from the door said: “Here I am. Who will get such beauty? He was accepted, and soon the former stripper was already posing for a variety of advertising campaigns, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Americal Eagle, Dolce & Gabbana and Emporio Armani. And for Gap, it was shot by the infamous photographer Bruce Weber, in whose photographs even cold monuments turn out to be indecently hot. “I gave my first autograph right under the Gap billboard with my image. With such a portfolio, one could safely go to conquer New York, ”says Tatum, recalling how at the age of twenty-two he found himself in the hectic Big Apple.

When he announced to his father that he wanted to become an actor – “because acting in films is much cooler than just taking pictures,” he went over his favorite films in his memory and gave his offspring an order: “Never blink, son. Paul Newman never blinks."

The advice was clearly worthwhile, because a year later they started talking about Tatum, and after the release of the art-house drama How to Know Your Saints, some especially impressionable journalists even dubbed him the new Marlon Brando.

In 2006, Channing landed his first major role. In the youth melodrama Step Forward, he seemed to play himself: the guy is a child of the streets, he learns to dance beautifully for the sake of the girl he is in love with. “Producers forced me to do choreography, and I can’t stand it, I danced freestyle all my life and didn’t even know how to keep score!” Tatum is still outraged.

But all his torment more than paid off: filmed on a very modest budget, "Step Up" became a hit, collecting sixty-five million dollars in the American box office, and now the aspiring actor had no end to the squealing fans.

Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum on the poster for the film "Step Up", on the set of which they met his partner in a few pas. Tatum turned out to be monogamous: he did not start other romantic relationships, and in 2009he and Jenna got married. The wedding took place without too much fanfare, but according to all Hollywood rules - two hundred people invited, a Reem Acra dress and a beautiful ceremony in one of the private properties in Malibu overlooking the ocean.

Now the actor is thirty-three, and he has already managed to light up in almost all film genres: both in the melodrama (“The Oath”), and in the blockbuster (“Cobra Throw” and its sequel “Cobra Throw: Retribution”), and in comedy ( "Macho and nerd").

“Even if Channing Tatum's name means nothing to you, you will definitely recognize him on the screen - a handsome, but not cute, strongly built man. There hasn't been anything like this in Hollywood for a long time. In addition, films with his participation collect one hundred million dollars at the box office. Yes, film studios are ready to kill for him!” - explains the sensation of the producer, who recruited Tatum for a role in the action movie "White House Down" released in July.

Shot from the movie "White House Down"

Initially, Channing didn't really want to save the world from bad guys: “Waving a gun in every movie is boring, and there is a risk of forever being stuck in the role of a cop rushing to the rescue. But the prospect of filming with Roland Emmerich, the author of the cult action movie Independence Day, seduced me. Besides, it’s not every day that I see the White House on fire.”

And even the stripper past that surfaced a couple of years ago only played into Tatum's hands. When an amateur filming of his performance in a thong appeared on the Internet, he did not deny anything, he simply said as he cut off: “Yes, it's me. I did it. Let's close the topic." And such a reaction immediately brought idle talk to naught.

And when the hype subsided, Channing called director Steven Soderbergh, whom he became friends with on the set of the action movie Knockout. “Steve, this is finished material! Movie based on events from my past! It's like Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta!" he shouted excitedly into the phone.

Soderbergh announced without hesitation that he was in business: “The guy has a head on his shoulders. He immediately realized: this story could make an excellent movie, ”recalls the highly experienced guru of the Dream Factory with a smile.

The film was called "Magic Mike", and the script for it was written by another friend of Tatum - Reid Carolyn, who worked with him on the film "War by Duress".

“I didn't intend to discuss this painting with anyone but my friends. I wanted us to have absolute creative freedom. Do you know why hundreds of great scripts go missing in Hollywood? Because the studios dictate their own rules, make changes, and the final version turns out to be nothing - the actors do not like the script and they refuse it. To prevent this from happening on Magic Mike, I became a producer and invested in the project myself,” Tatum says about how the film hit was born, filmed for some miserable seven million dollars.

Channing Tatum as a stripper (a shot from the film Magic Mike)

A little later, actor Matthew McConaughey, who took on the role of the owner of a strip club, joined the team: “He was recommended by Soderbergh, we all went to men's strip clubs together, and During the show, I told them how everything works. McConaughey immersed himself in the theme and ended up with a great performance. To be honest, I am very sorry that for this role he was not nominated for the Golden Globe! "Magic Mike" really did not win awards, but hit the jackpot at the box office: in the US alone, fees amounted to one hundred and twenty million. After such success, Tatum and Carolyn joined forces, founding their own film company Iron Horse - to continue to shoot what you want and how you want.

Recently, Channing is getting used to a completely unfamiliar role: in the beginning of summer, his wife Jenna gave birth to a girl. The newly minted dad in every interview talks about baby Everly - "the cutest and most amazing creature on earth." “Sometimes I don’t see her for twelve hours, and when I return home, it seems to me that she has changed - she has grown up and even her facial features have become different. Every minute away from my daughter is very hard for me, ”he laments.

Channing Tatum with daughter Everly and wife Jenna Dewan

However, the busy premiere schedule will deprive the young father of a good half of tender family evenings for the next six months. In September, the comedy The Passion of Don Juan saw the light of day, in which Channing again played with his friend and mentor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

And then the world gets a bigger movie: Foxcatcher, starring Tatum, is the true story of Olympic champion wrestler Mark Schultz and his brother Dave, who was killed in 1996 by schizophrenic John Dupont, their team sponsor. Dave is played by actor Mark Ruffalo, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2011. However, for the "Foxcatcher" the gold figurine was tipped in advance not to him, but to Channing. And for good reason: “This is my most difficult film - both emotionally and physically. We stumbled over each other, fell, stuffed bumps, got up and stumbled again, but we climbed out of our skin to look like two Olympic champions. When the last fight scene was filmed, Mark and I cried: we just hugged and sobbed in the ring.”

During the interview, Channing signed two dozen autographs - one or another enthusiastic girl ran up to the table with a sheet from a notebook, or even with an ordinary napkin in her hands. But this typical American from the Florida outback still does not feel like a star: “I don’t even know what kind of career I would like. Leonardo DiCaprio? Brad Pitt? Daniel Day-Lewis? Can I do it like they do? Now I just try to be myself. Maybe I’ll start to see myself differently when I become a really cool star.” How cool is that?! His look is serious: "Believe me, I can do much better." And really, why not?

Jenna Dewenn and Channing Tatum for a walk with his pets (May 2013)

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Photo: Getty, Splash, Bruce Weber

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The Tatler edition published an interview with the famous actor from the American hinterland, who himself has achieved success in the modeling business, shows great promise in the cinema and is going to join the galaxy of famous actors such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, who will not be awarded an Oscar, and others. The actor spent his childhood in the small town of Tampa in Florida, there were no prospects of becoming rich and famous thanks to his family. Health problems prevented him from following the path outlined by his father: due to attention deficit and dyslexia, Tatum even went to class with autistic children.

Read also: How Channing Tatum played a prank on fans

Every day, I wound up miles around the bright green football field like a clockwork, and the coach's choice abuse served as the soundtrack. My father dreamed that I would study well, get an education and become, say, a lawyer. But I have attention deficit disorder, and even dyslexia. For example, it takes me five times as long to read a script as other actors. This still seems strange to many, and then I was even sent to a class with autistic children and those with Down syndrome. There we were constantly stuffed with pills. After them, I seemed to think faster, but they turned me into a zombie.

This state of affairs did not suit Channing, and he soon stopped drinking pills and took care of his body: he built up muscles and became interested in breakdancing. Later, these skills, combined with his textured appearance, will come to his aid more than once at a time when he was just starting his modeling and acting career, but first things first.

Read also: Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover of "Rolling Stone": the actor spoke about children and why he was beaten at school

How did I learn to dance? Yes, it was the only entertainment in our outback. I've been sneaking out of the house every night since I was fifteen. At first, my friends and I just drank beer on the beach, and then we started hanging out in nightclubs. But I was an ordinary shy guy and was afraid to even look at them. At some point, I got tired of it, I learned a few moves and rushed to the girls. Later I heard an announcement on the radio calling for dancers. Those who pass the test were promised fabulous money. A couple of days later, my friend and a bunch of other textured kids were already standing at the entrance to the Joy strip club. The manager of the establishment handed us thongs, oil and hair gel, and then pushed us onto the stage to the amusement of a hooting crowd of excited women: "Ladies, these are our new ones, we are thinking of adding them to the team. How do you like them?" At that moment it seemed to me that I was participating in some kind of sacrificial ceremony, but when the music started playing, I started dancing. As I remember now: it was Usher's hit You Make Me Wanna. "

At this moment, we are reminded of footage from the movie "Magic Mike", but it is still a few years before it. After several years in the striptease, Tatum suddenly realized that this could not go on forever and that he had to move on. Where? Of course, in the modeling business, because there, like nowhere else, we need beautiful young guys with a good face and a strong character. So the ex-stripper has already posed for the most fashionable brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Americal Eagle, Gap, Dolce & Gabbana and Emporio Armani.

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I gave my first autograph right under the Gap billboard with my image. With such a portfolio, one could safely go to conquer New York.

At 22, Channing Tatum came to conquer New York. When the young star became crowded in the modeling business, he decided to try his hand at cinema and did not lose. One of Tatum's brightest first roles was in the movie Step Up. In addition to success in the cinema, the actor managed to achieve the location and the main beauty of the film, Jenna Dewan. In 2009He and Jenna got married last year and are now raising a daughter.

Read also: Oscar 2016: Leonardo DiCaprio nominated again, and Lady Gaga for the first time

Over the years of acting, the 35-year-old Channing has already managed to be the hero of melodramas, save the world in action films and, of course, make a film with elements of his Magic Mike biography. We simply could not ignore this picture. Channing dances there painfully seductively in front of an enthusiastic female audience. Here is what the actor says about this work:

See also: Named the sexiest man of 2012. Photo

I didn't intend to discuss this painting with anyone but my friends. I wanted us to have absolute creative freedom. Do you know why hundreds of great scripts go missing in Hollywood? Because the studios dictate their own rules, make changes, and the final version turns out to be nothing - the actors do not like the script and they refuse it. To prevent this from happening on Magic Mike, I became a producer and invested in the project myself.

"Magic Mike" did not win awards, but more than recouped the costs: in the US alone, fees amounted to one hundred and twenty million with seven invested. This dizzying success showed the actor where to go next. Now Tatum has founded his own film company, Iron Horse, to be able to continue to shoot what you want and how you want. Now Channing Tatum is doing great both in his work and in his personal life. And this opens up new horizons and opportunities for implementation. Therefore, this Hollywood handsome, remaining true to himself, ponders over life and future plans:

Read also: Media: Angelina Jolie adopted her seventh child

I don't even know what kind of career I would like.

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