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00:00Were there any near misses or behind the scenes stories while filming?
00:05My publicist isn't yelling at me yet.
00:10Hi, I'm Channing Tatum and I'm going to take 10 with Deadline.
00:19We all like going back in time and imagining how things could have gone differently.
00:26Like what if I made different choices?
00:30I'm glad I ended up here.
00:32It's been six months and still no leads on the whereabouts of the escaped convict known as the Roofman.
00:39Can I describe my character in Roofman?
00:42My character in Roofman is Jeffrey Allen Manchester.
00:45He was famous in certain parts of America, but mainly North Carolina,
00:51that he robbed about 45 McDonald's, but he only got caught for one.
00:56And he very, in my opinion, not fairly sentenced to 45 years in prison for robbing one McDonald's.
01:04The technicality that they got him on was that he moved three people that were being robbed in the McDonald's, the employees.
01:10He moved them to the freezer and they got him for three counts of kidnapping, I guess.
01:15So they really stuck it to him.
01:17When he went to prison for that crime, he wasn't going to get a second chance.
01:21He was going to be in there for 45 years and he decided to give himself a second chance and he broke out of prison.
01:26And he didn't just run as far and fast as he possibly could away from the prison.
01:32He ended up hiding in a Toys R Us and in the walls and in the roof for about six months.
01:38And that is where our story begins.
01:40What was my first reaction when I heard Jeffrey's story and read the script?
01:44Well, Derek Cienfrentz is the director and one of the writers, Kurt Gunn, is the other writer.
01:49I met Derek 20 years ago.
01:51My very first, I guess, actor, serious acting roles in a movie called Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.
01:57And it went to Sundance, did really well.
02:00And Derek offered me Blue Valentine, which is an amazing movie.
02:04And I turned it down like an idiot.
02:06You know, I remember the moment because I had just started acting and I really didn't know what I was doing.
02:11And I read the script and it was just so sad.
02:13It was like the one of the saddest, most heartbreaking, you know, scripts that I had really ever read to that point.
02:19I just didn't know how to do it.
02:20I didn't have the, I think, the confidence in my, I guess, craft at the time to be able to pull that off.
02:27And I should have jumped off the cliff with him, but I didn't.
02:30But I think that movie was always supposed to be Ryan's.
02:33He's such a brilliant actor.
02:35I'm such a fan of his.
02:36So I think it was all meant to be.
02:38And this movie, I think, was the reason why me and Derek now, and I think where I'm at now, I guess with my, again, quote unquote craft, I think I was ready.
02:49I was really ready.
02:50I had met him 20, I guess, 19 years after that first meeting at Sundance.
02:54And I went for a really long walk with him, like four hours or five hours or something like that.
03:00We just talked about everything.
03:01We didn't talk about any specific project.
03:03I think we got ice cream.
03:04We got food.
03:05I mean, we literally just talked about life, our kids, the state of the world, politics.
03:10Nine months later, I get a call out of the blue that he had written a script for me.
03:13And I was like, what?
03:15He didn't talk to me about any script when we met.
03:18And yet I read the script, obviously, because I would have done anything.
03:22I would have done absolutely any part and any script and anything.
03:26And for now on, also, like whatever he sends me, I'll play any part.
03:30I'll play cop number two.
03:31I don't care.
03:32The story of Jeffrey, the roof man, it seemed like it was fiction.
03:36But I know Derek and I know Derek's movies and is obsessed with reality.
03:40He's obsessed with making things real and visceral.
03:44And I just was, I couldn't believe that one of my favorite filmmakers had wrote a script for me.
03:49That was it.
03:50Did I talk to Jeffrey a lot?
03:52And what were those conversations like?
03:53Derek asked me if I wanted to talk to him.
03:55Well, I was like, I think I have to talk to him.
03:57I put in all my forms to the state to go and actually meet him at prison.
04:00And I just didn't hear anything from them for a long time.
04:03And then I finally got clearance.
04:05I talked to him for like every day for almost two months on the phone.
04:09I didn't know who was going to pick up the phone on that first phone call.
04:12He really shocked me.
04:14You project so much about people that go to prison or that have made, have done crimes.
04:20And I was just so shocked that he was as warm and I was just interested in this person.
04:28And this person was interested in me.
04:29He loves movies.
04:30He's a huge Spielberg fan.
04:31In the movie, there's Spider-Man a lot in my little hideout that I've made inside of the walls of Toys R Us.
04:37And he loves Spider-Man.
04:39But I think one of the biggest discoveries for me was just how unbelievably optimistic he was.
04:46He spent nine years in solitary confinement.
04:49And I don't know how you don't lose your mind, much less be able to keep some semblance of hope or faith or optimism.
04:59And, you know, he has all these dreams.
05:02He definitely has all the regrets that you can imagine.
05:05But I asked him what he wanted to do when he got out.
05:08And this one really, I think, kind of was probably like the last linchpin that I needed to really understand Jeff.
05:16And he's like, I don't know if they'll ever let me because I'm a felon.
05:20But I would love to adopt.
05:22And he's like, I would really like a second chance at being a father.
05:25He knows that he screwed up that.
05:27I think he really is sorry about it.
05:29He was a very different person when all this was taking place than I think he is now.
05:35And I really hope he gets that opportunity.
05:38I truly found myself just genuinely liking this human.
05:41And knowing that he's done, you know, the things that he's done, I still really, really have a lot of hope for him.
05:48How did you physically and mentally prepare?
05:51Have you had any roof scaling practice?
05:54I've only had about four photos of Jeff.
05:57But I did know he was pretty lean.
05:59And so I wanted to kind of lean down.
06:01You know, you do all your actor stuff where you're like, yeah, he's had to be pretty athletic to, you know, get on these roofs and to, like, get in holes and hide in places and whatever.
06:09So I didn't want to be some big, hulky, like, thick-necked, like, gym head guy.
06:15And I had just done a movie that I was kind of fat dad bod.
06:19So that's like cheeseburgers and Domino's pizzas and Coors Lights for about a month and a half.
06:25And that got me up to about 240 real quick.
06:28And I can put it on really quick.
06:30And I used to be able to take it off really quickly.
06:32And now it doesn't happen so quickly anymore.
06:34But in about three and a half months, I took off about 65 pounds, almost 65 to 70 pounds.
06:40I got down in the beginning of shooting to, like, 180.
06:43And then by the end or by kind of the middle, I got to about 172.
06:48It was about as low as I think I got.
06:50There was a moment on set, I think about two-thirds of the way through, that Mariela, the first AD, was just like, that's it.
06:58Get him a sandwich.
06:59I can't watch this anymore.
07:00You're not allowed to lose any more weight.
07:02We're done. We're done.
07:04And if you know her, you don't say no to her.
07:06And I did.
07:07I had a cheeseburger that day and it was great.
07:09Have I had any roof scaling practice?
07:11I, fortunately or unfortunately, have climbed so many things in my life.
07:15I've climbed telephone towers.
07:16I don't know why.
07:17I really like high places.
07:18I'm not like a rock climber, weirdly.
07:20I like just being in high places.
07:22I'll climb anything.
07:23Probably the last craziest thing I climbed was a Spider-Man billboard on La Cienega.
07:28Walking home from a bar with my buddy, Reed.
07:30I think it was the first Spider-Man, actually.
07:32No, it wasn't the first Spider-Man.
07:33It had to be the second Spider-Man, I guess.
07:34I was just like, I want to see that movie.
07:37I jumped the fence and then I scaled the billboard and then we sat up there for a little while.
07:42And that was it.
07:43Jeffrey survives on peanut M&Ms for ages.
07:49What would be your snack of choice if you were trapped in a store?
07:53If it had to be a Toys R Us and like had to be like candy or whatever in a Toys R Us,
07:59I would probably pick like Reese's Cups.
08:02I think I'd go for the nutritional value of peanut butter, Reese's Cups.
08:05Were there any near misses or behind the scenes stories while filming?
08:14Near misses.
08:15Derek likes everything to be real.
08:17So I thought I was just dropping through the roof.
08:20And this is towards the end of the movie where I'm breaking into a pawn shop to get a gun.
08:26And I cut a hole in basically the wrong side of the roof.
08:30And I drop in on the wrong side of the wall of the pawn shop.
08:34So now I'm in like a tanning sort of business.
08:37I just thought I was going to drop down like I have in some other scenes.
08:40And he's like, no, I kind of feel like this is like a desperate part of the movie.
08:44I feel like this is like a fall.
08:45And I was like, oh, okay, well, how are we going to do that?
08:49We haven't really prepped that at all.
08:51And he's like, well, it's not, you know, you just figure it out.
08:54And at this point, Derek really trusted me as far as like my physicality.
08:57And like, I do like to do my own stunts.
08:59And as much as they'll let me do, I'm not going to go try to fly a helicopter
09:03because I don't know how to do that.
09:04But falls and stuff like that and hitting the ground, I'm pretty decent at.
09:08So I just held on to about like a pole for about nine feet off the ground.
09:12And there was a tanning bed there.
09:14And you just let go.
09:16And you just let go.
09:17And I'm pissed.
09:18I'm not going to call it a miss.
09:19I'm going to call it a pissed because Derek missed the shot.
09:23I broke the tanning bed with my back, happy I didn't break my back.
09:27And then I bounced onto the floor and he was on the wrong lens.
09:30So you can't even really see the hit.
09:31I was like, want to get a bigger lens?
09:33You want to get a wider lens on this next one?
09:35He's like, well, we can't do it again because you broke the tanning bed.
09:37And I was like, okay.
09:38So I guess that one's in there.
09:40But that one was fun.
09:43There was a lot of shenanigans during the naked scene with Peter Dinklage.
09:47Thankfully, no near misses.
09:49We didn't have a plan on how to film that.
09:52And I didn't know we were going to be filming it kind of in a one-er.
09:55So you see stuff.
09:58And after we filmed that, Derek was like, how do you want me to handle the stuff?
10:03And I'm like, I don't know.
10:04How do you want to handle the stuff?
10:05I was like, we don't want an X-rated.
10:08I just let him handle what was right for the scene.
10:11So I actually don't know what he did, if he painted stuff out or what.
10:15He's like, do you want me to blur it?
10:16And I'm like, no, that's weird.
10:17Don't blur it.
10:18That's how it feels like we're, I don't know.
10:20I was like, that feels weird.
10:21It's going to take you out of the movie.
10:23And he's like, okay, okay, I'll figure it out.
10:25I'll figure it out.
10:27My publicist isn't yelling at me yet.
10:31I didn't say anything bad.
10:33Okay.
10:35Jeffrey is harmless.
10:37If you could get away with a crime where no one gets hurt, what would it be?
10:45This is a hard one.
10:48A crime.
10:51I'm going to go fight club on this one.
10:53I'd erase everybody's debt.
10:55So I would just be like, boop, delete, halt, delete, whatever.
11:00And then just disappear.
11:02Anyway.
11:03All right.
11:04You have Avengers Doomsday coming out next year.
11:08Any fun stories from that set or hanging out with the cast?
11:12I cannot tell you about the cast or hanging out with them.
11:15You know that I can't do that, but there are a lot of them.
11:19So I enjoyed hanging out with all of them.
11:22Being on that set is, I mean, not everybody knows like my, my journey with Gambit.
11:27It wasn't my favorite character growing up.
11:29I was the kid throwing, you know, playing cards at my friends in the living room when I was like in third grade.
11:35And so like that is literally my guy.
11:38Like I love him so much.
11:40I love him for so many reasons.
11:42And I'm just glad that one, that Ryan gave me a chance to actually play him and show the world what I saw in him.
11:48And to get to play him again now is even just more delicious than I can even describe.
11:54And in a completely different kind of movie, in a way.
11:58The Russos, I think, make a very different movie than Sean Levy and Ryan Reynolds.
12:02And he's still going to be the Cajun.
12:04You know, he's still going to be the raging Cajun.
12:05He is.
12:06He was the most real out of all of the X-Men to me.
12:09He liked women.
12:10He smoked.
12:11He drank.
12:12His moral compass was very gray.
12:13He was never going to be a villain.
12:14He didn't have the heart to be a villain.
12:16But he wasn't exactly a hero hero.
12:19And I think that's very human.
12:21Derek, this is Derek C.
12:22Ron's the director of Ruthman's line.
12:24He's like, I've never met a hero and I've never met a villain.
12:26I've just met humans.
12:27So I have stolen that.
12:29And yeah, that's why I love Gambit.
12:31And I hope you do as well.
12:33And thank you for listening to my Take 10 with Deadline.
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