14 DAY TRIAL // Channing Tatum is one of the most successful and widely appreciated actors in Hollywood right now, and he’s expanding his “brand” one day at a time. He does comedies, he does drama, he does voice work for animated movies, he produces, he writes, he sculpts and he wants to direct.
Channing is, according to most industry people, a very hot star, and not just in the sense that he’s got the body of a model coming out of the pages of Men’s Fitness.
However, growing up, before he became a high school jock, Channing was never made to feel as if he could be anything more than he was.
A.D.H.D. struggle and the need for more inclusion of kids diagnosed with it
To promote his new film, “Foxcatcher,” for which he’s already getting a lot of Oscar buzz, Channing sat down for a heart-to-heart interview with the New York Times’ T Magazine. It serves as proof that Channing isn’t just amazing on screen, he’s also that in real life. Relatable too.
Diagnosed with A.D.H.D. (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and dyslexia as a kid, Channing talks about how he came to feel like he wasn’t “very smart” because of a faulty system that didn’t make any effort to be more inclusive.
“I have never considered myself a very smart person, for a lot of reasons. Not having early success on that one path messes with you. You get lumped in classes with kids with autism and Down Syndrome, and you look around and say, Okay, so this is where I’m at,” he explains.
“Or you get put in the typical classes and you say, All right, I’m obviously not like these kids either. So you’re kind of nowhere. You’re just different. The system is broken. If we can streamline a multibillion-dollar company, we should be able to help kids who struggle the way I did,” Tatum continues.
He built a career on physicality and he’s not ashamed to say it
As a teenager, Channing had already become very popular. At 19, he became an exotic dancer, an experience that he would later draw on for inspiration when writing the script for the critically acclaimed “Magic Mike.”
But he always wanted more and he had already guessed that the way he could get his foot in the door was by using his physicality. Channing explains to the magazine that he’d always thought of physicality as his one chance at being accepted, so he’s not sorry he used it to break into Hollywood too.
He’s come a very long way from that though. Tatum attracted international attention as the hunky dancer in “Step Up,” but he is now generating Oscar buzz for his role in “Foxcatcher.” Even if he doesn’t get a nomination for the 2014 edition of the prestigious awards gala, the mere fact that his name is mentioned in the same breath as Oscar is an achievement in itself.
Or, as he puts it, “over time I’ve been able to develop other aspects of myself, sort of on-the-job training.”
Channing guides his life by his mother’s advice when he was younger, “be a sponge.” He’s always looking to work with new people on new projects, because that’s the only way he can learn from them and thus improve himself.
His hobby, for instance, includes sculpting and he jokingly says that his works resemble those of Auguste Rodin because that’s his favorite sculptor.
The rest of the T Magazine interview with Channing Tatum is available at the link. It’s worth the read, especially if you’re a fan, because he also talks about his role in “Foxcatcher” and how he prepared for it, more on sculpting and his drive to tell interesting, captivating stories through whatever he does.