I cannot tell a lie, people. When it comes to deeply dumb beefcake, Channing Tatum is my weapon of choice, something for which my movie-going buddy Alex Remington regularly and roundly mocks me. My affection for the guy stems as much from his abs as from the sense that he has a pretty clear idea of what he's being trotted out to do, something I think this interview with New York pretty much confirms. For example, I wish more actors would admit that most of the time, their motives are financial rather than artistic (unless you're Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, and you can do both at once, because you are Just That Special):
When you do a movie like [G.I. Joe], you aren’t trying to break any ground. You just want kids and grown-ups who remember the cartoon to go see it, love it, and have a good time watching shit get blown up. And we did good business anyway. There is talk of a sequel. I know they hired a writer, so I’m crossing fingers.And as awkwardly as this is phrased, I think he's probably correct, at least in part, about why most early Iraq and Afghanistan movies have been such critical and commercial failures:
Most of the other movies about the current war, including the one I was in, Stop-Loss, took too much of a political stance and no one really wanted to hear it. The Hurt Locker was an amazing film that realistically shows what these guys are going through, how they feel every day, the danger they put themselves in to guarantee our way of life every day, without trying to make a statement.Stop-Loss really was incredibly moralistic. Ryan Phillipe should stick to playing fascinating cyphers like he does in Breach, which, next to The Hurt Locker is one of the best tense movies I've seen in years. But most of all, it's hard not to like a guy who sounds this reasonable about the on-set scalding of his penis:
I’m back in the game. Put me in, coach. It was pretty intense. I was really scared for a second that there was nerve damage or I wouldn’t be able to have kids, but I healed and everything is good. Your junk almost being burnt off just might be the scariest thing that could happen to a man, especially a newlywed. That is not a call you want to make to your new wife.And look, Channing Tatum is not the kind of actor any lady loves for his damn mind. But it's a relief that his doesn't seem entirely empty or reprehensible.