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04-14-2009, 01:32 AM | #1 |
VALKYRIE
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Over the rainbow where your mom is at son
Posts: 23,515
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From IESB:
Quote:
Channing Tatum’s career is on a role with Fighting and G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra out this year, and the romantic drama Dear John, based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, out in February 2010.
In the Rogue Pictures drama Fighting, small-town boy Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) has come to New York City with nothing. Barely earning a living selling counterfeit goods on the streets, his luck changes when scam artist Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) sees that he has a natural talent for street fighting. As Shawn’s manager, Harvey introduces him to the corrupt bare-knuckle circuit and, almost overnight, he becomes a star brawler. But, he also learns that he must fight his way, if he ever hopes to escape the dark world in which he’s found himself. At a press day for the film, Channing Tatum talked about how his dance background helped him out with the fight scenes in Fighting, and how unprepared he feels for the opening of his August blockbuster G.I. Joe. Q: Since you wanted to do a fighting movie with minimal fighting, why was it important to you that this wasn’t about the physicality of it, but more about the relationships? Channing Tatum: This was a basketball film. I had said, “I don’t want to do a basketball film.” Way before Dito was even on this, I tried to think of one director that I knew would never do a basketball movie. When they asked me what director I’d like to work with, I said, “Dito.” And, low and behold, a month later, he called me up and said, “I know it’s basketball movie, but I’ve got a take on it.” So, I went to meet him and he told me, “It’s Midnight Cowboy,” and I was like, “That’s amazing! I would love to play Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy, especially your version of Midnight Cowboy. Hell, yeah!” And then, I said, “Wait a minute! We haven’t taken basketball out. It’s still a basketball movie, Dito.” He was like, “I know. Just trust me. We’ll get it out. We’ll figure it out.” Finally, when we had less than three weeks to get the movie going, I just suggested, “Just take the basketball out, and let’s make a fight film.” Kevin Misher, the producer, said, “I don’t know if I can do that. Let me work on it.” And, a week later, they did it and it was awesome. Q: Shawn is a tough street kid, but he also opens doors for little old ladies. Did you have to find that balance to play him, or is that just you? CT: I’m from the South. If I didn’t open a door for my mom or my sister, I got slapped on the back of the head. That got fixed real quick. I wasn’t about to not do that. That’s what Dito really wanted. They came to him and told him that he couldn’t cuss in the movie because they wanted it PG-13. He was like, “You want me to do an underground fighting movie on a PG-13? I can’t do it! I’m going to go home and think about it tonight and, if I can’t wrap my head around it, then you have to find somebody else to do it.” We were way down the line on the movie for him to say that. We talked about it. It was really his idea that Shawn just chooses not to cuss. That’s just his upbringing. He went to church. He doesn’t cuss because he chooses not to. Harvey is the same way. He’s old-fashioned. You don’t notice that it’s gone. It just goes to show you that you can do anything, if you do it right. Q: What was the toughest thing about doing this movie? Was it the fighting? CT: I guess, probably. Dito does drama, and this is commercial drama. They are two different things. But, we really wanted to make a commercial film with decent acting and good characters because people think the acting in commercial films isn’t great because they just don’t care about that. They just want to see a big, huge blow-up of a movie. We wanted to bring those characters to a commercial film. Q: What was your work-out regime for this? CT: The greatest thing about my career is that I get to be really on and really off. I’m at home drinking beer and eating cheeseburgers and chocolate cake, but then I’m on and I get really serious, which is great because I have all day to work out. People that do 9 to 5 jobs don’t. So, I wake up and run for an hour, and then go and do my training. When I was doing Fighting, I would go work out for two and a half hours, learning how to fight and learning how to be comfortable on the ground, standing up, taking punches and blocking them. Then, I’d go home and run for another hour and a half. Running was a big part of my program, but also eating well, as well. Q: Did your dancing background help with the fight scenes at all? CT:Yeah, I’d say that dancing has helped in probably everything, even in acting. You’re comfortable with your body, so you can relax. You don’t get tight or tense. The most dangerous thing is distance, when yo’'re doing those fake fights. You’re swinging with all your might and they have to time you and you always make eye contact, so you can’t know exactly how far away you are because you’re looking in someone’s eyes. Q: And, you took it to the nose? CT: Oh, man, it was over to the right side of my face. I was looking at Kevin Misher because there were no mirrors around where we were fighting, and I was like, “It’s not good, huh?,” and Kevin didn’t even answer me. Dito had a frightened look. They put two spoons on ice and mashed my nose back in. It didn’t swell that bad. My eyes got black a little, but it was nothing we couldn’t cover. Q: Shawn is on a downward spiral on the streets until he meets Harvey and turns his life around. Did that ever happen to you? Were you ever lost and had someone come along who helped? CT: Yeah. I’ve had the real amazing situation that I’ve always had someone in my life like that. There was always someone who came by, at the right moment, to put things in perspective for me and to make me look at something, in a way that maybe I wasn’t before. I’ve had a thousand of those people, who are your little guardian angel that just comes right at that moment. I remember when I got so pissed off one day about something. I don’t remember what it was now, but I had one of my friend’s little boys with me and I took him out for the day and I said, “God, I hate it when that happen.” And, he looked up and said, “You shouldn’t hate anything,” and I suddenly thought, “You’re right! I’m sorry!” He was so young, he could barely even walk, but he was absolutely right. Q: How was it to work with Terrence Howard? CT: I’ve loved watching that guy act since I remember first seeing him in films. It was way before I was an actor, or even planned to act. And then, I met him at Sundance and he had seen A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, and he had all these amazing things to say about the film and my performance in it. It literally welled me up because it was the first time that I had a real actor, who I thought of as a great actor, tell me that he liked my work. I almost couldn’t take it. He said, “I want to do something with you someday, so let’s keep each other in mind.” He loved Dito, so we were always on the lookout for something and, as soon as we got to sit and hang out, the guy’s like a big brother now. Q: Will you do another movie with (director) Dito Montiel? CT: He’s rewriting a script that’s sort of a spy movie. We don’t know if we’re gonna do it, but he’s exploring it. It’s an interesting opportunity. Nobody thought that Dito would be doing some international spy film, but I definitely thought he would be into it. He had a crazy, cool take on it. We’ve all seen the Bourne films, and this won’t be that, I promise you that. Q: How daunting was it for you to go into the lead of a huge Hollywood movie, like with G.I. Joe? CT: That type of a film is not only daunting, in general, for a seasoned actor or an actor that has done one of those films before, lower on the call sheet, but I had no idea what I was doing. I had no clue. I was terrified of the movie. I really had no aspirations to go do a huge film like that, in my career yet. I didn’t really feel ready for it. I kinda got thrown into it. In doing so, it really opened my mind to the fact that it’s just acting, but it’s a different style of acting. It’s more skipping along the surface. It is about the big explosions. You’re not sitting there, trying to do Shakespeare. Q: You can’t take these big blockbuster films seriously, so where is the line between taking the work seriously and just completely realizing how ridiculous the whole thing is? CT: You kinda find it and you laugh at it. That’s the only way to really do it. I don’t know anyone that wasn’t laughing on G.I. Joe, all the time. Marlon Wayans is my partner in the movie, and we laughed through the entire thing. I was sitting there, looking at a green screen, yelling, “Rip cord!!! Noooo!,” and you’re just like, “What am I doing?” Or, you’re like, “You get the rockets, I’ll get the nanomites. What a minute! What are nanomites? I don’t know what’s going on!” But, you just have fun with it, and you just pray that they get a good take because you don’t know what anything looks like and you don’t know what you’re reacting to. They’re like, “Look right! Look left!,” and you don’t know what’s happening. You can only trust your director. Qo you feel like you have to overact in something that size? CT: Yeah, exactly. I was afraid of overacting, but that’s what you can’t be afraid of. You don’t have to overact. I was the guy that they’d have to pull it out of. I was like, “No, man, it just feels too big. I can’t do it!” (Director) Stephen Sommers was like, “Just trust me. Promise me you’re going to do it, and I promise you I won’t use the take if it’s not right.” It would be like pulling teeth, but I’d do it. It fits. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was just the worst actor on the planet. Q: What was the line you had to say that made you think, “I will never be able to say this with a straight face!”? CT:There were so many! Every single one of the lines was like that. I don’t think it actually made it into the film, but I had to say, “Action figure sold separately,” or something like that. And, Marlon had a line where he says, “You’ve got a Kung Fu Grip!” All the G.I. Joe dolls had the Kung Fu Grip, and he had to say that about somebody that grabbed him. I was like, “That ain’t ever gonna work! That’s never, ever gonna be in the movie!” And, it’s in the movie and it works. All the fanboys will be like, “Yeah!!!” People who don’t know about the Kung Fu Grip will just be like, “Whatever, that’s just what he chose to say right then.” Q: So, the film is self-referential? CT: Yeah. It’s very self-referential sometimes, just for the wink at the crowd. Q: Are you prepared for the fan reaction that you’ll get? CT: I don’t think I can honestly say that I’m ready, if it does good. If it doesn’t do good, then I’m totally ready. It’s just gonna to be like it is now. Q: What other projects are you doing? CT: I don’t really have anything coming up. There are a bunch of things that I’m now starting with my producing career. I have a bunch of projects. Q: You have your own company? CT: Yeah. It’s called 33 and Out, which means for us to work hard and just get to work. I love acting, but I think I’m going to really enjoy being on the other side, one day. I like creating, and not being in the spotlight. I like to be a creative person that gets to write something that I think is interesting and see it come to life. It’s with a couple of buddies who are my writing partners, and we’re just starting to write now. Q: Do you have any work plans for summer? CT: I’m trying to figure out what movie to do. I don’t know. There are all these scripts out there with directors attached, but no one can read the scripts because they’re so top-secret. You’re like, “How do I know if I want this movie? I love you as a director and I would bend over backwards to do anything you’re gonna do, but I just want to know what it is.” You go into the meetings and you’ve gotta sign the confidentiality agreement thing, and they sort of tell you what it is, so you say, “Can I read a script?,” and they’re like, “We’ll call you.” No one is making little movies any more. Q: You also have Dear John, with Amanda Seyfried, coming out next year. What’s that about? CT: It’s a romantic movie. Nicholas Sparks wrote it, who everybody knows wrote The Notebook, and it’s not that far away. It’s a tear-jerker that pulls on the heartstrings. It’s hugely sentimental, in more of a contemporary way. The Notebook was a very artistic film that captured a time. This is a very contemporary story. I play a soldier that comes home on leave and falls in love with a girl, and he has a peculiar sort of relationship with his dad. Unbeknownst to anyone in the family, his dad has a form of Asperger Syndrome and he’s a very reclusive, non-social person, which has made John a little bit anti-social. Nicholas Sparks has such a formula. It’s like novocaine. It just works. I got to meet him and he’s actually a really interesting guy. Q: Who plays the dad? CT: Richard Jenkins, who is such an amazing actor. He’s the guy that you tap when you just need a brilliant actor to come in. He hits it on the mark, every time. Q: How do you manage to be so free of ego? Where did that come from and how long can that realistically last? CT: I think you try your hardest to stay out of the spotlight and you don’t listen to people. I don’t read what is written because I think it can warp you. You have enough people telling you that you’re something and a part of that is going to assimilate in your head. I don’t want to read what other people write about me. I don’t want to know. I just want to keep doing the things that I’m doing, and hanging out with people that know me from before I was an actor. FIGHTING opens in theaters April 24! |
04-14-2009, 01:37 AM | #2 |
Epically lazy bastard!
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Well now...duke is a dancer? is he gonna be in the remake of Breakin next? Fighting is a sad knockoff of the old van damme movie lionheart just slightly tweeked. Not like lionheart was a spectacular film and oddly enough..van damme too was a ballerina much like tatums past. Coiencidence? I am starting to wonder....
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04-14-2009, 04:25 AM | #3 |
Cobra Soldier
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: louisiana
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I love Nicholas Sparks books and it's really interesting to hear that Channing will be playing another military role. Guess I get to drag the husband to see that movie, as Dear John is one of my favorite Sparks books.
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04-14-2009, 07:26 AM | #4 |
Crimson Nerd
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Virginia
Posts: 12,579
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Quote:
Well now...duke is a dancer? is he gonna be in the remake of Breakin next? Fighting is a sad knockoff of the old van damme movie lionheart just slightly tweeked. Not like lionheart was a spectacular film and oddly enough..van damme too was a ballerina much like tatums past. Coiencidence? I am starting to wonder....
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04-14-2009, 08:53 AM | #5 |
#voteblackjack
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Northwood, NH
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Actually a dance background helps out alot. Fighting in a movie is basically choreographed, just like dancing. In a dance routine you have to know your steps and when to move your body in different ways. That's what choreographed fighting is. So can definitely see how having a dance background could help.
I think some people just look for any excuse to find something wrong with the movie and the actors chosen. I love that "kung-fu grip" line. The movie Fighting actually looks like it might be pretty decent.
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04-14-2009, 11:24 AM | #6 |
Dixieland Delight
Join Date: Feb 2008
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I like Tatum. I do not know if he is the next Russel Crowe or Anthony Hopkins, but he is a serviceable actor and seems to be a good, level-headed person.
The more I read about the actors' views of the film, it makes me wish this was more of a Dark Knight type film than Men in Black summer blockbuster. Something dark and gritty, or at least substantive, rather than act-by-numbers. Oh well. Perhaps the sequel will be a little more involved. I am in, regardless.
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04-14-2009, 01:35 PM | #7 |
Epically lazy bastard!
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Its not that he's got a dancing background..big whoop. Doesnt mean thats why i hate him...i hate him cause hes a suckbag actor. He sucked in stop-loss(which was a horrible movie allaround), hes gonna reek as duke and fighting...i dont even have to see it to know it will stink. Its a remake of Lionheart more or less and lionheart wasn't that great of a film. Tatum just doesnt seem all that original as an actor and he just doesnt have a good enough charisma for me to actually like him as an actor.
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04-14-2009, 01:48 PM | #8 |
Banned
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Quote:
Its not that he's got a dancing background..big whoop. Doesnt mean thats why i hate him...i hate him cause hes a suckbag actor. He sucked in stop-loss(which was a horrible movie allaround), hes gonna reek as duke and fighting...i dont even have to see it to know it will stink. Its a remake of Lionheart more or less and lionheart wasn't that great of a film. Tatum just doesnt seem all that original as an actor and he just doesnt have a good enough charisma for me to actually like him as an actor.
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04-14-2009, 01:51 PM | #9 |
Epically lazy bastard!
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True...but even as bad as the Avengers movie was (remember that god awful flop?) Sean Connery still made it worth watching as the villian.
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04-14-2009, 02:00 PM | #10 |
#voteblackjack
Join Date: Sep 2008
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Here's the question though..
Was it Sean Connery that made it worth watching, or the villian he played? Some actors, it doesn't matter what role they do, it would still be watchable. It's a VERY short list of actors. Put another actor in that villian role, would it have been as good? Probably not. So that still means it was a suck script. Just had Sean Connery, who people are used to seeing as a good actor and carries a bias about him, so that "saved" it. Come on, it's Sean Connery. Who's not going to like something Sean Connery is in?
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