How ‘Dear John’ became Channing Tatum’s best work: “I feel like I did something different”
In a little over a decade, Channing Tatum transformed from being a generic teen heartthrob to an actor of great ambition and range. In fact, the Tatum of today may now go back and laugh at the choices he made early on in his career.
The actor may have had the most surprising career out of any other within his age bracket, and although it first appeared that being in generic young adult films like She’s the Man and Step-Up was all that he could do, he steadily transformed his career after choosing to work with more interesting directors.
That Tatum would eventually work with Derek Cianfrance, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen brothers may not have seemed plausible in 2010, in which he appeared in the critically reviled romantic drama Dear John. Although the film was lambasted at the time, particularly for its unusual twist ending, its star said that it was the best role he’d played thus far in his career.
“I feel like I did something different as far as the way my energy was,” Tatum said, “I tried to be still in the movie. That is something I haven’t really done in a film. Most of my characters have been sort of kinetic and very physical.”
Although there are many criticisms to be made about the way that Lasse Hallstrom directed the film, Tatum’s performance was one of the few aspects that was praised in Dear John. The actor said that the ability to act against type was appealing to him and got him more engaged in the filmmaking process. “I don’t know if it was harder,” he said, “It was just different. All of the characters are hard in a certain way. It was challenging, but Lasse just gives you the freedom to try anything. It doesn’t make it difficult. It just makes it fun.”
It’s easy to see why the film had an impact on him back in 2010, as he hadn’t quite been given the opportunity to prove himself; although he had already appeared in great films like A Guide To Recognising Your Saints and Public Enemies, they only gave him relatively small roles. However, it was his series of collaborations with Steven Soderbergh that truly transformed Tatum into a great actor.
In an industry that changes so frequently, the best quality an actor can have is versatility, and Tatum turned in a range of performances under Soderbergh’s wing, one more disparate from the next. It saw the director cast him as a ruthless assassin in Haywire, a self-conscious exotic dancer in Magic Mike, a regretful ex-con in Side Effects, and a struggling father in Logan Lucky, all of which proved his mettle as a serious performer.
It was less than five years after Dear John was released that Tatum announced himself as one of the definitive stars of his generation, and in 2014, he reprised his role in 22 Jump Street, the rare comedy sequel that was funnier than its predecessor 21 Jump Street, and gave a towering dramatic performance in the Oscar-nominated drama Foxcatcher, both of which solidifed his presence in the industry as one of those rare actor with comedic and dramatic chops.
However, despite the fact that he has appeared in genuinely thoughtful, creative films like Blink Twice and Fly Me To The Moon, they simply didn’t connect with audiences, and he failed to receive any serious award season recognition for Roofman, which may have actually featured the best performance of his career, rendering him somewhat underrated. However, his hard work and willingness to reinvent himself would suggest that it is only a matter of time before his talents are eventually rewarded in a major way.
