“I was pushed into doing it”: Channing Tatum Hated Filming His $302M Movie That Was Later Taken Over by Dwayne Johnson
Channing Tatum has opened up about his experience in the 2013 blockbuster G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra which was a reboot of the G.I. Joe franchise. The actor revealed that he wasn’t a fan of the script when he read it but was insisted by Paramount on doing it.
The film might have been a commercial success with $302 million income at the box office, but it was definitely a critical failure and a challenging endeavor for Tatum. The movie was later on taken over by Dwayne Johnson, adding another layer to the behind-the-scenes drama.
Channing Tatum Gets Candid about his G.I. Joe Experience
Actors often vocalize their dislike of the movies they were part of. The same was the case with Channing Tatum, who spoke negatively about his past choices. He even poked fun at the role when he appeared in one another film.
In one of his interviews, the actor expressed his feelings about the movie. He said,
“Look, I’ll be honest. I f***ing hate that movie. I hate that movie.”
Tatum talked about how he was threatened by Paramount Pictures and caught up in contracts he signed as a young actor,
“I was pushed into doing that movie. From Coach Carter, they signed me to a three-picture deal … They give you the contract and they go, ‘Three-picture deal, here you go.’ And as a young [actor], you’re like, ‘Oh my god, that sounds amazing, I’m doing that!’
But things often don’t work that way, certainly not in the entertainment industry. The initial bliss turned out to be less sparkly than it seemed. As Tatum continues,
“Time goes by and you get other jobs and you’re building your quote and you have a dream job you want to do. And … the studio calls up and they’re like, ‘Hey, we got a movie for you, we’re going to send it to you.’ And they send it to you, and it’s GI Joe. And I love GI Joe [and I asked] ‘Can I play Snake Eyes?’ And they’re like, ‘No, you’re not playing Snake Eyes, you’re playing GI Joe.’”
Tatum highlighted that he has been a fan of the action hero as a kid but the movie experience sort of ruined it. He was tied up with the contracts, unhappy with the script, not allowed to play the character of his choice, and couldn’t do much about it as there were many risky factors at play.
Dwayne Johnson became the face of G.I. Joe: Retaliation
The Magic Mike star was very unwilling to be part of the G.I Joe: Rise of Cobra. He was more than pulling for his character, Duke, to die. As he said in his lie detector test with Variety, in January 2023,
“The first one I passed on seven times, but they had an option on me and I had to do the movie. So the second one, I obviously just didn’t want to do that one either.”
The actor’s wishes were met when the sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation, killed off his character very early on in the film. And Dwayne Johnson became the lead man in the film.
Contradicting Tatum, who complained of a lack of creative control in the film, Johnson was quite positive about the movie. He said that he did enjoy working in the movie and was quite proud of its final product.
Tatum himself is not naive to the fact that the movie’s commercial success gave his career a boost and he went on to find creative satisfaction in other projects.
Read More: Channing Tatum Scared of Movie Industry Changing Too Much: “There will be less good storytelling”
Source: The Guardian
