Cinematical Set Visit: Channing Tatum Talks ‘Dear John’

I have to confess that I don’t think I could have picked Channing Tatum out of a line-up before meeting him on the set of Dear John. I knew vaguely that he was one of those incredibly buff Ambercrombie Models, I knew he danced, and knew he was going to be in G.I. Joe, but I didn’t have a very precise image of him. As I disembarked from our car, he galloped past me, and I didn’t recognize him right away. Shocking!

I think everyone has an image of what they think Tatum must be like. I’m happy to say that you’re wrong. For one thing, he’s charismatic in a way that I don’t think has come across onscreen yet. I hope Dear John changes that for him. In person, he’s incredibly warm, friendly, and sweet and no one could stop singing his praises. As you can guess, actors run the gauntlet as far as approachability goes, but there wasn’t a smack of phony affability in Tatum. He even gave us all a hug after our interview — and no, none of us asked — which is not something actors really do. Come on, I don’t want to hug 99% of the people I meet in a professional day. And yes, girls, you can feel every muscle.

Here’s our Q&A with Tatum, which Cinematical participated in with UGO and Coming Soon. The questions were not all asked by Cinematical, so we’ve kept them all in bold as a reference.