Channing Tatum's Fighting Talk

29 September 2009

1Comments | Comment on this Article

2009 really has been the year for Channing Tatum with Fighting and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra under his belt.

But it was Fighting, and the character of Shawn MacArthur, that really shot him to prominence this year.

The film follows a young counterfeiter is introduced to the world of underground street fighting by a seasoned scam artist, who becomes his manager on the bare-knuckling brawling circuit.

- How did you prepare for this role?

I grew up around fighting. My dad boxed with gloves and stuff so we always talked about boxing and what not. I had done martial arts like Kung Fu. I went to Legends gym here in LA and trained. I went in there and I consider myself a decent athlete but when we started to train, I realised it had nothing to do with how athletic you are (laughs). 

It’s all mental. It’s what you know, how you use it and your mental toughness and composure.  It’s incredible. I would say it’s sixty per cent mental forty per cent physical.

- Does it focus on your weakness or your strength?

Well, it’s your knowledge about fighting in general. Whatever the fighting is boxing, fighting, Judo, Thai boxing, it’s how much you know doing that. Some people just know how some people move.  It comes down to the experience of it. The more you fight, the more you know, the more you can use in the ring.

- Have you ever been so angry in your own life that you’ve just hit someone?

(Laughs) I’ve been in my fair share of scrapes, but I’m not a fighter. I’m not a tough guy at all. I walk away from fights now.

You have two huge movies, GI Joe and Public Enemies coming out. Your name is around Hollywood, on billboards and on magazine covers. You’re the next Hollywood ‘big thing’ how does that feel?

It’s a bit of a bubble right now, it hasn’t popped. I don’t know exactly. Every once in a while I’ll feel it like if I’m walking through an airport and there’s a (laughs) a high school field trip or something, then that can get a little crazy.

- What do they want?

They just want a bunch of pictures and stuff like that, which is fine. But that’s the only time I really get it. No-one knows me at all really, which is kind of great. I kind of like it. If I can still be successful making films and no-one will ever know me, then that would be great.

Because we (actors) just like to do what we do.  People who are doing it for fame, I don’t know if they ever get really successful.

- Well, GI Joe can certainly change that for you?

G.I Joe is definitely going to mix things up and I don’t know if I’m ready for it. 

- How are you going to feel?

I try and not think about it yet, I think I’m going to deal with it when it comes and if it changes and how it changes I’m sure it’s going to change my life.  But I guess it’s something I chose! (Laughs) So, it’s my fault.

- What do you think of the action icons of the eighties like Stallone and Schwarzenegger? Would you aspire to become an action hero?

I think the action movies in the 80s and 90s were different.  It was a testosterone age. Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sylvester Stallone they fuelled my childhood.  That’s what got me to do back flips off houses and crazy things. But now I don’t think I’d like to do just action, I don’t enjoy that.