Channing Tatum Says He Experimented with Drugs During His Stripper Days
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Claudette Barius/Warner Bros.(NEW YORK) — In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Channing Tatum says he experimented with drugs while working as a stripper in his younger days.
“I wouldn’t say I was losing myself in drugs because I wasn’t doing anything habitually,” Tatum, whose experiences as a stripper served as the basis for his 2012 film Magic Mike, tells the publication. “Just experimenting. Experimenting, I would say. Never the big ones — crack or heroin. I never OD’d or anything. Never.”
When asked if he’d used cocaine, Tatum answers, “Maybe a couple times, but that was later. Drinking was probably the biggest [thing]. I didn’t look at drinking as a problem. It wasn’t at that point, and I still don’t think it’s a problem. But at that time in my life, it was, ‘Let’s go out and have a great time.'”
While Tatum recently described himself in a GQ interview as a “functioning alcoholic,” he now says it was not intended to be a “factual” statement. He clarifies, “It was said in context with the glutton side of myself. I’m constantly a flip-and-flop of extremes. I take care of it, to an extent — and then I kind of knock it all down and destroy the sand castle. All I meant was that I do things in extreme.”
Tatum shares a funny anecdote about a lap dance he once gave a woman. He remembers, “The lady goes, ‘Oh my God! Look at you! You remind me of my nephew!’ — and then grabs me. It hit me like a hand grenade. It was like tick, tick, tick, boom: She’s grabbing my butt and saying, ‘You remind me of my nephew.'”
Tatum also touched upon his marriage to Step Up co-star Jenna Dewan Tatum, with whom he has a 17-month-old daughter, Everly. Will they have another child in the near future? His response: “I don’t think very, very soon, but it really depends if Jenna’s show gets picked up for a third season. Then we would probably wait.”
The interview was conducted before it was announced earlier this week that Jenna’s Lifetime series, Witches of East End, has been cancelled.
Tatum says reports that the couple is headed for a divorce are “bulls***.” He continues, “These people just [make it up]. Some of our family members don’t see [it’s not true], and they read a stupid thing and don’t understand it’s a tabloid.”
Tatum stars with Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo in the drama Foxcatcher, which opens in limited release next week. A Magic Mike sequel, Magic Mike XXL, is due out in 2015.
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