Channing Tatum stars in the Roman epic adventure ‘The Eagle,’ a Focus Features film directed by Academy Award-winner Kevin Macdonald. | Courtesy of Focus Features
Though Channing Tatum has received a lot of criticism for seemingly sub-par acting skills, he is a well-spoken and friendly individual in conversation. When speaking to him about his newest film, “The Eagle,” he was not at all like the characters we’ve seen him portray in the past. In fact, he is more relaxed and engaging than one would think.
With his character Marcus Aquila in “The Eagle,” Tatum strays away from his usual castings — like those in the romantic drama “Dear John,” and the first two installments in the “Step Up” series — and into a more serious, heroic role as a young Roman soldier seeking honor.
“As an actor, I really want to do as many different things that I can,” Tatum said. “I think that helps you stretch and grow — being a young actor and not having a lot of experience when I started, I’ve had to do a lot of learning on set.
“My two favorite movies are Braveheart and Gladiator, so I’ve always dreamed of doing something in this world, with the themes of honor and duty and absolute faith in a responsibility to one’s country are themes that I’ve always enjoyed.”
Tatum explained that director and Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald provided accuracy and realism to the role.
“Kevin is the reason I was really drawn to the project,” he said. “I thought ‘Touching The Void,’ ‘The Last King of Scotland’ and ‘State of Play’ were some of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. With (Macdonald) doing a Roman epic, I was first in line. I really sought out the project and Kevin — he’s so specific in what he really wants.”
Filming on-location in Hungary and Scotland provided two extremes in the amount of difficulty for the film crew.
“Hungary was fairly simple,” Tatum said. “I mean, we were there for about five weeks, we shot pretty much the entire first half of the movie there.”
The highlands in Scotland were completely different, however.
“If you’ve ever been to Scotland, you know not to go in the winter and to not go to the highlands,” he said. “It was pretty grueling. I’ve never been in such an intense situation. We were basically the coldest and wettest we’ve ever been — and it was something we had to look forward to every day.”
Despite the filming difficulties, Tatum fared particularly well with his co-stars Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland and Mark Strong — all of whom he learned from. He had nothing but positive things to say about working alongside experienced and standard-driven actors.
“(Donald Sutherland) is a true legend,” Tatum said. “The most beautiful thing about Donald and some of the other older actors I’ve gotten to work with is that they still really love it. He’s been acting longer than I’ve been alive — I mean, he’s been in things like ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and ‘M.A.S.H.’ He’s one of these guys who’s been doing it for so long and hasn’t gotten jaded, he’s got a passion for it.
“It’s a great example for a younger actor like myself,” he said. “If you don’t love it, you can get completely complacent. To watch him after every take go up to the director and wanna make it better — that’s Donald Sutherland — he’s so passionate about what he does, he needs it to be great. That’s a note that anyone can take in anything that they do.”
“The Eagle” opens in theaters everywhere today.
