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“I hate that movie.” Channing Tatum turned down the role seven times and begged to have his character killed off in this popular action series

Channing Tatum hated the film series he was the star of so much that he begged for his character to be killed off so that he wouldn't have to appear in it again.

Edyta Jastrzebska

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“I hate that movie.” Channing Tatum turned down the role seven times and begged to have his character killed off in this popular action series, image source: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Stephen Sommers, Paramount Pictures, 2009.
“I hate that movie.” Channing Tatum turned down the role seven times and begged to have his character killed off in this popular action series Source: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Stephen Sommers, Paramount Pictures, 2009.

It so happens that actors agree to take part in projects that in the end do not correspond to them at all. After a closer look at the script, they regret their decision to a particular production, but it's too late to run away and they are obliged to play in the movie or TV series despite their reluctance.

Something like this was experienced by Channing Tatum. The actor hated G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and rejected the film as many as seven times, however, he eventually had to star in it. As he itted in an interview with Vanity Fair – he was forced to do so.

The first one I ed on seven times, but they had an option on me and I had to do the movie. So the second one, I obviously just didn’t want to do that one either.

Tatum was so reluctant to take part in the series that when it came time to film the second installment, which came out in 2013, he asked for his character to be killed off in the first 10 minutes of G.I. Joe: Retaliation and he got, what he asked for

Tatum shed more light on his relationship with the popular action series when he was guest in Howard Stern's show. G.I. Joe, which he had previously agreed to do, came at an unfortunate time in his career when he was focusing on his dream projects, until here he suddenly had to play G.I. Joe.

Look, I’ll be honest. I f****** hate that movie. I hate that movie. I was pushed into doing that movie. From Coach Carter, they signed me to a three-picture deal…They give you the contract and they go, “Three-picture deal, here you go.” And as a young [actor], you’re like, “Oh my god, that sounds amazing, I’m doing that!” Time goes by and you get other jobs and you’re building your quote and you have a dream job you want to do. And… the studio calls up and they’re like, “Hey, we got a movie for you, we’re going to send it to you.” And they send it to you, and it’s G.I. Joe.

The actor had many reasons why he didn't want to appear in the project. He confessed that he didn't like the script from the beginning and thought it was bad, which was especially upsetting to him because he was a fan of the series and didn't want his contribution to it to be just such a bad project. In addition, he was not convinced by the role he was offered.

The script wasn’t any good… And I didn’t want to do something that I… was a fan of since I was a kid and watched every morning growing up – and didn’t want to do something that was, one, bad and, two, I just didn’t know if I wanted to be G.I. Joe.

Luckily for Tatum, his adventure with G.I. Joe ended with the second film. In turn, the series continued without his participation, which the actor, by his own ission, did not regret.

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Edyta Jastrzebska

Author: Edyta Jastrzebska

A graduate of journalism and social communication as well as cultural studies. She started at Gamepressure.com as one of the newspeople in the films department. Currently she oversees the Gamepressure movie&TV newsroom. She excels in the field of film and television, both in reality-based and fantasy themes. Keeps up with industry trends, but in her free time she prefers to watch less known titles. Has a complicated relationship with popular ones, which is why she only gets convinced about many of them when the hype around them subsides. Loves to spend her evenings not only watching movies, series, reading books and playing video games, but also playing text RPGs, which she has been into for several years.