When actors take on a character, they have to at least be able to pretend that they’re experts at certain skills. If you’re offered a job on the condition that you can ride a horse, play a sport, do a fight scene, or play an instrument, isn’t it pretty typical to say you can do it and learn how later? Well that’s the situation Channing Tatum once found himself in, as he recently admitted to lying about a specific skill in order to nab a part, and it definitely wasn’t the dance moves he showed off in Magic Mike.
In an interview with ET, Fly Me to the Moon’s Scarlett Johannson asked her co-star Channing Tatum if he had ever lied to get a job, and in fact one of Tatum’s best movies — a certain 2006 flick starring Amanda Bynes — came to mind. Yes, the multi-talented actor seemed to be referring to She’s the Man when he responded:
I did, like, a movie about soccer, and I think I definitely — it wasn’t about soccer, I played soccer in it — and I definitely led on a little bit more that I could play soccer than I actually could. But I pulled it off.
It’s not surprising that Channing Tatum was able to figure it out. After all, he’s proven to be quite talented in his different roles over the years. In addition to hitting the soccer pitch in She’s the Man, he played basketball in Coach Carter, hip-hopped through Step Up and even affected a Cajun accent in one of Deadpool & Wolverine’s biggest cameos.
It also helped that he only had to be able to play soccer to a certain point, thanks to the movie magic that is editing. The actor continued:
I was just like, ‘Just cut away when I f it up.’ I was like, ‘I’m just gonna run and look really athletic, and you guys just cut that.’
While I wouldn’t have expected soccer to be the skill that Channing Tatum had to fib about for the movie based on a Shakespeare play, there were no lies needed to do what he did in Magic Mike.
He may not have been the most experienced athlete, but he certainly was a male stripper before getting his big break in Hollywood, and the 2012 Steven Soderbergh film was loosely based on Channing Tatum’s real-life experiences. In fact, the actor ranks his stripping skills above JLo’s in Hustlers and his Magic Mike XXL co-star Joe Manganiello. Tatum even showed off those skills recently, joining the other dancers on stage at a Magic Mike Live show.
She’s the Man is still regarded as one of the best teen rom-coms, and I’m sure I speak for many when I say I’m really glad he lied about his soccer abilities for this one. You can relive all the sporty fun by streaming She’s the Man with a Paramount+ subscription. Magic Mike XXL, meanwhile, can be streamed with a Netflix subscription, and Magic Mike: The Last Dance is available on Max, another of the best streaming services.