Few modern celebrities have experienced career trajectories quite as bizarre and interesting as Channing Tatum. The former male stripper (both in real life and on the silver screen) has graduated to the A-list in a major way, and his resume seems to become increasingly eclectic with each passing year. So how does Tatum go about deciding which jobs to take? As it turns out, his daughter plays a pivotal role in the Logan Lucky actor's decision to pick (or not pick) a project. Per Tatum:
When you start worrying about what the outcome is more than what you're making, it's really tough to make something that is pure. At the end of my life, when I have to look at my daughter in the face and go, 'Daddy took time out of our lives, out of our relationship, to go do something,' it better be worth it. It better not just be for money.
We're sure the money helps, but it's not all about that for him -- at least not anymore. When seemingly surefire hits like Jupiter Ascending and G.I. Joe: Retaliation did not turn out the way that he assumed they would, he apparently had to take a long hard look at the roles offered to him and decide which ones were worth being away from his family for months at a time. This transition in Channing Tatum's career seems to have occurred roughly four years ago, and you guessed it, that pretty much coincides with the birth of his daughter.
You can certainly see the DNA of this idea if you look at Channing Tatum's filmography from the last few years. Between roles in films like The Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar!, Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, and his upcoming reunion with Soderbergh for Logan Lucky, it seems that he has endeavored to avoid pigeonholing himself in a particular archetype or character. As a result, Tatum hasn't necessarily maintained a consistent presence as a leading man in recent years, but he has continuously delivered scene-stealing performances as a character actor.
Oddly enough, Channing Tatum's bigger upcoming projects also appear to have taken ample inspiration from the mentality described in his interview with EW. When CinemaBlend caught up with the actor at San Diego Comic-Con to ask him about the development of his long-dormant Gambit solo movie, he revealed that the success of movies like Deadpool and Logan fundamentally shifted the focus of Gambit's behind-the-scenes evolution. Instead of a more traditional blockbuster in line with the average, ensemble-oriented X-Men films, it now looks like he has opened the door to a smaller and more off-kilter approach to his standalone superhero film. One thing seems pretty clear at this point: Tatum knows how to take risks and make them work in his favor, so that's something to get excited about.
Make sure to catch Channing Tatum alongside Adam Driver and Daniel Craig in Logan Lucky, which opens in theaters today; then check him out again next month when Kingsman: The Golden Circle debuts on September 22.
