Tasty Crushie Tuesday: Channing Tatum

"Channing Matthew Tatum"

Birthdate: April 26, 1980

Hometown: Cullman, Alabama

Occupation:
Actor / film producer
dancer / model

Spouse: Jenna Dewan (m. July 11, 2009–present)

Website: Channing Tatum Unwrapped

Tatum was born in Cullman, Alabama. His mother, Kay (née Faust), is an airline worker, and his father, Glenn Tatum, worked in construction. His ancestry includes Irish, French, and Native American. Tatum's family moved to Mississippi when he was six, and he grew up in the bayous near the Mississippi River, where he enjoyed a rural existence.

Tatum was athletic while growing up, playing football, soccer, track, baseball, and performing martial arts; he has said that "girls were always [his] biggest distraction in school." As a child, he practiced wuzuquan kung fu. Tatum spent most of his teenage years in the Tampa, Florida area and initially attended Gaither High School before going to Tampa Catholic High School. He graduated in 1998 and was voted most athletic. Afterward, Tatum attended Glenville State College in Glenville, West Virginia on a football scholarship, but dropped out. He returned home and started working odd jobs. US Weekly reported that around this time Tatum began working as a stripper at a local nightclub, under the name "Chan Crawford." In 2010, he told an Australian newspaper that he would like to make a movie about his experiences as a stripper, saying, "I've already got the director picked out. I'd like Nicolas Refn, who did the movie Bronson, to do it because he's insane for it." He later moved to Miami, where he was discovered on the street by a model talent scout.

Career

~Early work~

In 2000, Tatum was first cast as a dancer in Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" music video, after an audition in Orlando, Florida; he was paid $400 for the job. His experience in the fashion industry began as a model working for such noted clients such as Armani and Abercrombie & Fitch. He soon moved into television commercials, landing national spots for Mountain Dew and Pepsi in 2002. He subsequently signed with a modelling agency in Miami, Page 305 (Page Parkes Modeling Agency), but later found success after being cast by Al David for Vogue magazine and soon after appeared in campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Dolce & Gabbana, American Eagle Outfitters, and Emporio Armani. He was picked as one of Tear Sheet magazine's "50 Most Beautiful Faces" of October 2001. Tatum also signed with Beatrice Model agency in Milan, Italy and Ford Models in New York City.

Tatum has said that his modeling career has helped him with his life, specifying that "It's made my life, and my family's life, a lot easier, because I never knew what I wanted to do and now they don't really have to worry about me anymore. I've been able to explore life, and through exploring it I've found that I love art, I love writing, I love acting, I love all the things that make sense to me. And I've been given the chance to go out and see the world, and to see all the things out there. Not everyone gets that chance".

~2004–2007~

In 2004, Tatum landed his first real acting job in an episode of the television series CSI: Miami and decided to pursue acting full time. His first feature film role was in 2005's high school drama, Coach Carter, playing Jason Lyle, a basketball player opposite Samuel L. Jackson; Tatum also appeared in rapper Twista's "Hope" music video, which accompanied the film. In the same year, Tatum had a role as a factory endorsed top motocross racer in Supercross, an uncredited part in War of the Worlds, and part of the supporting cast in Havoc. Although Tatum has said that he loves modeling, he has taken a break from the profession to concentrate on his acting career, saying that he prefers making more mature films.

Tatum was originally scheduled to play Genghis Khan in the film Mongol, but was replaced by actor Tadanobu Asano. He was eventually cast in the film She's the Man, where he plays Duke, the love interest of Viola Hastings, Amanda Bynes's character. The film opened on March 17, 2006, and it was a modest success at the box office, grossing about $57 million worldwide.

That same year, in 2006, Tatum starred in Step Up, a dance-themed romance, playing a rebellious hip-hop dancer who must partner with a ballerina who is in training played by Jenna Dewan which opened on August 11, 2006. The film earned a total of $21 million in its opening weekend and $114 million worldwide. He also appeared in the music video for Ciara's "Get Up", which was featured on the soundtrack of the film. Later that year, Tatum played in the 1980s-set drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Shia LaBeouf, in which he plays Antonio, a street youth in Astoria, Queens who uses his fists to solve problems. Tatum has described the latter film as his "first dramatic role"; his performance received positive notices at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where the film premiered. The acclaim continued when he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actor".

~2008–present~

In 2008, Tatum co-starred in director Kimberly Peirce's film Stop-Loss, about soldiers returning home from the Iraq War, and in director Stuart Townsend's film Battle in Seattle, about the 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Tatum played in the indie film The Trap, which was directed by Rita Wilson. He was chosen for a role in the film Poor Things, starring Lindsay Lohan, Shirley MacLaine, Rosario Dawson, and Olympia Dukakis, but had to turn it down because of scheduling conflicts.

Tatum and Dito Montiel, who worked together on A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, reteamed on the action drama Fighting for Rogue Pictures. Tatum starred as Sean McArthur, a young man who scrapes up a living scalping tickets in New York City. Tatum next appeared in writer/director/producer Michael Mann's 2009 crime drama Public Enemies, playing the 1930s American gangster Pretty Boy Floyd. The same year, Tatum starred as Duke in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Paramount Pictures' live-action film based on the popular Hasbro action figures. He was initially reluctant to take the role as he feared the movie would glorify war. However, he overcame his reluctance when he read the script. He also played a soldier in Dear John, a Screen Gems film based on a popular Nicholas Sparks bestseller. He later told he accepted the role to learn from Lasse Hallström because he did not go to acting school, his only way to improve is on set.

Tatum and Dito Montiel will join forces again when Channing stars in 2010's action thriller The Brotherhood of the Rose. Montiel will both write and direct the film. The story is a cat-and-mouse espionage tale about two orphans raised by a top CIA agent to become assassins. When their operations go awry, they find themselves on the run, caught in a conspiracy and hunted by the most dangerous spies in the world. The book was previously adapted as a two-part NBC miniseries in 1989 that starred David Morse, Peter Strauss, Connie Sellecca, and Robert Mitchum.

In an interview with Details magazine, Tatum said he wants to produce all the films he stars in, "I really don't want to be in any more movies that I don't produce. Unless it's with one of the 10 directors that I really want to work with, I don't have any interest in not being on the ground floor of creating it." He, his wife Jenna Dewan, and their production partner Reid Carolin signed a two-year production deal in 2010 with Relativity Media for any movies they may develop during that time. Along with friends Reid Carolin, Adam Martingano, Brett Rodriguez, and wife Jenna Dewan, Tatum has started production companies called 33andOut Productions and Iron Horse Entertainment. Their first production is a documentary called Earth Made of Glass that follows the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and genocide survivor Jean-Pierre Sagahutu. The film was selected to premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Tatum hosted Saturday Night Live on February 4, 2012. He co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire, which opened on January 20, 2012, then in The Vow, with Rachel McAdams, which opened on February 10, 2012. Tatum will star alongside Jonah Hill in the film adaptation of 21 Jump Street. He will also reprise his role as Duke in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, a sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Later in 2012, he will also star in Magic Mike, along with Alex Pettyfer and Matthew McConaughey. Tatum co-produced this film (with Steven Soderbergh), about an upstart male stripper taken under the wing of a more experienced colleagues, loosely based on his 8-month experience as a male stripper in Florida.

~Next projects~

He is also in preproduction for Foxcatcher with Steve Carell about the story of John du Pont, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and killed Olympic wrestler David Schultz. He will be in Steven Soderbergh's The Side Effects with Rooney Mara and Jude Law, a film about a woman who turns to prescription medication as a way of handling her anxiety concerning her husband's upcoming release from prison, set for release in 2013. Tatum is currently attached to the movie Peter Pan Begin.

Personal life

In 2006, Tatum met actress Jenna Dewan on the set of Step Up. They began dating shortly after filming had finished. The couple became engaged in early September 2008 in Maui, Hawaii. On Saturday, July 11, 2009, they were married on the grounds of Church Estates Vineyards, in Malibu, California.

In February 2012, Tatum will be visiting Johannesburg, South Africa on behalf of his 'Keep A Child Alive' Foundation to help raise awareness for the foundations new fundraising Campaign. Whilst in Johannesburg, Channing will be staying at the 'Glenburn Lodge Country Estate' in Muldersdrift with a group of underprivileged youth from America who will be touring the country with him learning about the adverse living conditions African children currently live under. Apparently American hip hop superstar Jay-Z is set to be joining him.

(Source)