It’s not always about feeling fully ready. Sometimes you need to pretend to know what you are doing even when you don’t.
At least this was what Channing Tatum did. The bayous of Mississippi are a far cry from the bright lights of Hollywood. The path between the two is one few have taken. And for Channing, it was not a planned one. The charisma of an A-list star, the moves of Jagger, the talent of a method actor—Channing Tatum defies easy categorisation. So does his rise to fame. From Tampa to Tinseltown, the grit and gusto of Tatum’s business smarts and natural instincts prevailed over his circumstances.
Some celebrities appear to us fully-formed; but Channing’s emergence as the new poster boy, model, and box office draw was anything but an overnight success. Diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia during high school, with all the accompanying medication to follow, Tatum was constricted, like so many, by the boundaries of convention. Balancing his anxiety, a budding sporting career, and an innate drive to learn, Tatum’s instincts took him down some unlikely roads, once adopting the title ‘Chan Crawford’, in his days working as a stripper.
Since, Tatum has constructed a body of work around his own tastes and preferences; producing only work he believes in, shunning roles he doesn’t, and carving a name for himself within Hollywood as more than a pretty face. Tatum’s story is remarkable; it has all the hallmarks of the unplanned emergence tales on which Hollywood is built—only with more fancy footwork.
