After having snagged small parts in “Coach Carter,” “Supercross,” “Havoc” and “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” Channing Tatum began to enter the consciousness of the young moviegoing public in 2006 with leading-man roles in the romantic comedy “She's the Man” and the dance flick “Step Up.”
Since then, the actor has starred in a war film (“Stop-Loss”), a sports movie (“Fighting”), a big-budget action-adventure (“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”) and a romantic drama (“Dear John”) - quite an eclectic collection of genres for any one particular actor's filmography.
“As an actor I really do want to do as many different things as I can,” Tatum explains. “I think that helps you stretch and grow. Being a young actor and not having a lot of experience when I started, I had to do a lot of my learning on-set.”
Now, with his new motion picture “The Eagle,” in which the actor plays a Roman soldier who heads to the Scottish highlands to retrieve the long-lost Ninth Legion's emblem in an effort to restore his father's honor, Tatum accomplishes yet another personal milestone by adding a period piece to his resume.
“The themes of honor, duty and absolute responsibility to one's country have always been themes I've enjoyed,” Tatum says. “My two favorite movies are 'Braveheart' and 'Gladiator.' They are sort of my 'Star Wars,' in a way, so I've always dreamed of doing something in this world and in this realm.”
However, the opportunity came at a price. He suffered a crotch injury while filming “The Eagle's” final fight scene after a a crew member forgot to dilute boiling water before pouring it down the actor's wetsuit. Tatum says that he has never experienced anything so painful.
Of course, Tatum also had to spend a lot of time and energy preparing for his role in “The Eagle.” He trained for at least six hours per day for three weeks straight, sharpening up his horseback riding and sword-fighting skills, both of with which he had some experience having grown up in Alabama with an interest in martial arts.
“But as far as just preparation for the character, [director Kevin Macdonald] comes from a documentary world so he's obsessed with reality and accuracy and he would inundate us with all kinds of literature, like journals of Caesar's military campaigns ... exploits and whatnot,” Tatum adds. “Then we just talked about it in great extent.”
Tatum does not intend to stop stretching and growing as an actor any time soon. He has four more movies set to be released this year, including the high school reunion ensemble “Ten Year,” the Catherine the Great biopic “Love and Honor,” the crime thriller “Son of No One” and Steven Soderbergh's spy film “Haywire.”
When asked about what genre or type of role yet to be represented on his resume is his next priority, Tatum admitted to being drawn to both starring in a science-fiction/fantasy flick, like “Avatar,” and lending his voice to a character in an animated adventure. He also expressed a desire to do more comedy.
“Even though I did comedy in this last movie, 'The Dilemma,' I kind of want to go farther with it,” Tatum adds.” I'm about to do it in April with Jonah Hill in '21 Jump Street.' I haven't played a bad guy, either. I don't know what it is about me but I want to play a psycho or a bad guy. I guess its all just in the world of make-believe.”
“The Eagle” (PG-13 – 114 minutes) opens Friday exclusively at Harkins Camelview 5. Visit NCM.com for specific showtimes.
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