THe hollywood star talks to TOAD about his new movie White House Down, working with Jamie Foxx and his love of action films.
It’s been quite a few years for Alabama-born Channing Tatum. He’s been at the centre of acclaimed big screen smashes such as 21 Jump Street, Magic Mike and the G.I. Joe franchise and this month sees the release of White House Down, a high-octane thriller directed by Roland Emmerich about an assault on the US president’s home by a deadly paramilitary group.
So is the white vest in White House Down your homage to Bruce Willis’ John McClane character in Die Hard?
Yeah, the name’s John: John Cale. Someone told me Arnold Schwarzenegger was never called anything but John in his action movies.
Is that true?
I have no idea. Someone said that to me the other day and I was like: ‘That can’t be true, he can’t have been John in every single action movie that he ever did.’ [It’s not true – Ed]
Did you watch lots of action movies as homework for this film?
Yeah. I was an ’80s and ’90s baby so I went to the movie theatre every weekend and there was always one showing, whether it starred Stallone, Van Damme, Seagal or Schwarzenegger himself.
Did you ever think this was the sort of film you’d end up doing?
You never think you’re going to be in a love story, you never think you’re going to be in a comedy, you never think anything. I’ve said it before that movies are the highest stakes make-believe game in the world. It’s unreal how fast this project got going to begin with, and all the people that just jumped on [board] immediately. This movie got its script sold like that [snaps fingers], and then it went into production like that [snaps fingers]. I met Roland [Emmerich, director] two or three days after he decided to take the movie. He had a similar movie, I think, that he was writing and this just sort of came along and he took it over. But I don’t think you can ever plan for anything like this. This is nuts. It’s cool.
What’s it like for you now that you’ve had a few successful projects?
Recently I’ve been trying to get more behind the camera than I have in front of it, and it just seems like interesting movies and big movies like this [come along]. I’ve always wanted to do a Die Hard. It’s one of my favourite films. There’s only a few directors that can do what Roland does on an international scale and on an action scale.
What’s next for you?
The Wachowski’s just came up [Tatum will be starring in the cinematic siblings’ next project Jupiter Ascending], Bennett Miller [Tatum will be co-starring with Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher], so I can’t say no to those people. Then [there’ll be] a sequel to 21 Jump Street, so I can’t let Jonah [Hill] down. But, yeah, you’re right, the things that do come by are getting more interesting and it’s great, but I don’t want to forget about the [projects] that are really on my dream list.
Magic Mike was also a huge hit for you. Is there any chance we might see a sequel?
We’re scratching our heads because [Steven] Soderbergh is gone, from directing at least, for a long time. He wants to paint and I think he should, I really do. I think he wants to be done for a while and I don’t think he should make movies if he wants to be done. The last two that he made, Side Effects [which Tatum stars in] and Behind the Candelabra (although I haven’t seen that one), I hear they’re some of his best movies, and I think he should go out on a high note. So that leaves us with who’s going to direct Magic Mike 2? Greg Jacobs said he would do it if we come up with the right script. The studio said, ‘Why don’t you guys do it?’, to me and Reid [Carolin, producing partner]. But I’m not going to direct my first movie behind Soderbergh. There’s no win there. Maybe we’d get someone like Roland to do it and just completely change it.
That would make it a completely different movie!
A reboot, with zoo animals and stuff! Who knows? It would be crazy. Everybody’s dying to do it, it’s just got to be right. None of us want to do some cash-grab of a sequel. We want it to be good, because it was a special one for all of us and we all just jumped in family-wise on it. But there definitely is going to be a stage version, a Broadway version, so we’re slowly pounding away on that. None of us has ever done anything like that so we’re writing a light story and we’re trying to find somebody to really write the stage version because none of us know how to do it.
So what was it about White House Down that clinched the deal for you?
I always try to figure out, either for my character or the movie, what is it if you had to say it in one sentence? I looked at it like this: [it’s] a guy that ends up saving the leader of the free world through the love of his daughter. I think that’s sort of what we hoped, not in a hard-handed or on-the-nose way, but in a roundabout way, that was the reason that he ended up in this situation. It was all because of his daughter, and he’s probably not the best husband or even dad. I have friends that have dads that are better friends then they are dads – they’re more like buddies than they are actual parental advisors. So I think that’s more what John Cale is and this is the first time he’s really been able to love his daughter through what he’s good at, and that’s just dogged determination. I thought that was interesting.
Can you give us a little bit of insight into what it was like working with Jamie Foxx on this movie?
Jamie and I got along from [the start]. He’s maybe one of the single-handedly most talented people I’ve ever met in my entire life. The man can literally do anything. There’s a piano in one of the hallways that leads to the residence in the White House, and in between takes he was just over there playing jazz! Then he stands up and he’s Jamie Foxx, kid from Texas, you know, from maybe not the classiest part of town – he’s one of the boys. Then you get him into the scene and he’s the president. It’s incredible to watch him and he’s such a good guy. I’m learning a lot from him as far as even how to just be in this industry. It’s cool, I love him to death.
White House Down is in cinemas from June 27.
