When I interviewed her in Washington D.C. last weekend about her role in White House Down, 12-year-old Joey King told me that she and her co-star Channing Tatum had developed an elaborate secret handshake. With Tatum not there to prove it, I didn't get a chance to watch them show it off… but lucky for me and everybody else on earth, they performed it for all of the world on Good Morning America today. Go to the 2-minute mark to watch it in action.
So we all knew that Channing Tatum had some serious dance moves-- Magic Mike proved everything that Step Up hinted at-- but who knew that he could adapt them to a crazy secret handshake performed alongside a tween? In the movie King plays Tatum's daughter Emily, an aspiring blogger who's a junkie for political news but not so crazy about her dad, a Capitol policeman who's not done the best parenting job since he split up with her mom. But on the morning the story begins Tatum's character John Cale surprises Emily with a pass to tour the White House, a dream come true for a government nerd like her that quickly becomes a nightmare when terrorists take over the White House, and only John Cale can save the President (Jamie Foxx) and his daughter.
Yes, that's kind of a ridiculous plot-- and a very obvious riff on Die Hard-- but White House Down has the goods to make that work, with Tatum and Foxx riffing on each other perfectly, little Joey King conveying some serious terror, and director Roland Emmerich back to doing what he does best: blowing up the White House.
For more on White House Down, which comes to theaters this Friday, check out the official trailer below, and come back to our movies section for our interviews with the entire cast-- sadly, sans dancing.
