Channing Tatum On His 4-Year Return From Acting: ‘I’m Having Fun’
After taking a four-year break from acting, Channing Tatum is back with a full slate of movie projects this year. The 21 Jump Street star is about to release his co-directorial debut Dog this week, followed by the adventure comedy The Lost City which he stars in opposite Sandra Bullock. And production will soon begin on Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
“I’m just [living] in the moment of it,” Tatum, 41, told PEOPLE Magazine. “I don’t have this grand plan, I don’t think I ever really did have a grand plan. Before I took some time off, I was on a pace that just was untenable. It was not something that I could really sustain. I don’t even know if some of the last stuff that I was making, if I was really and truly my best in it in some of the movies. I wanted to make sure that I still had something to offer, and I wasn’t just doing it just for a career.”
The actor says the break helped him reframe how he wanted to prioritize future projects saying, “Right now, I feel really in the pocket. I’m having fun. Reid [Carolin, his producing and writing partner] and I really needed to direct. We’ve been talking about it for a really long time, and I didn’t want to just take a job to take a job. I wanted for us to direct first, to see how that went. Then I took another job after that. I got to work with Sandra Bullock [on The Lost City], It was so much fun. Now I’m just seeing what happens. I don’t want to take too much on, so I can really enjoy my life and enjoy the actual projects that I do take on and just give it all I have.”
Tatum admitted that certain aspects of directing came more naturally to him than others. “Developing the story was really natural,” he said. “There were certain aspects, talking about the characters, talking about the actual acting inside of the scene was really easy for Reid and I. Plus we didn’t have a ton of other actors, it was just me and the dog mainly. What was not intuitive was editing. I did not enjoy it. I don’t think it was good for my mental health to watch myself onscreen and pick apart what we should use and what we shouldn’t use.”
Channing’s upcoming film, Dog, opens in theaters this Friday, February 18. Watch the trailer below:
GALLERY: Channing Tatum Looking Hunky Over The Years
