Trophy Talk

Channing Tatum on Why he Screamed at Roofman Script and His "Naked" Meeting with Peter Dinklage

On this episode of the Awards Tour Podcast, the Emmy- and Tony-winning actor talks about the joy he gets from being tagged on social media in at-home games and why he's always considered himself an actor first, rather than a movie star.

by RT Staff | October 20, 2025 | Comments

TAGGED AS: Awards, Awards Tour, Interview, Oscars, Q&A

Channing Tatum is earning some of the best reviews of his career for his stellar work in Derek Cianfrance’s Roofman. The movie is based on the stranger-than-fiction story of Jeffrey Manchester, the viral stickup artist who broke out of jail and evaded authorities by living in a Toys “R” Us retail store. While on the run, our hero falls in love, joins a church community, and gets a second chance at family despite his nefarious deeds. A true story of redemption and poor choices. Awards Editor and Awards Tour host Jacqueline Coley sat down with Tatum, Cianfrance, and the rest of the cast, including Kristen Dunst and Peter Dinklage, to discuss the film. Read on to see a preview of their conversation, and click the video above to see the film chat.

Be sure to check out Roofman, which is playing in theaters now, and we’ll see you on the next stop of the Awards Tour.

Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: This is a difficult part to play, but you play it impeccably. How did you pull off the balancing act that is this very complicated man?

Channing Tatum: Derek Cianfrance is the reason why it all came together, obviously, but I love characters. I’ve always loved characters in movies and in real life. I think almost anybody, you could take a snapshot out of their life and judge them pretty cruelly and be like, ‘you’re a bad person,’ but there’s a way and a reason of why they got there and how they got to that moment. And I like giving an understanding to those people. When I read the script, I was yelling at the script. I was just like, ‘Don’t do that! Why are you doing that?! Stop it!! You got it figured out. Just do the thing! Stop!’ And he just wouldn’t stop. He just kept making bad decision after bad decision. And I loved the line in the movie that’s in there: that I made some decisions that took away some other decisions, and I was only left with bad decisions.