In “White House Down,” Channing Tatum was challenged to harness his inner John McClane and more or less single-handedly rescue the president after the White House gets taken over. In his next film, “Jupiter Ascending,” he’s going to flex his muscles as the next Keanu Reeves, performing action sequences for “Matrix” filmmakers the Wachowskis that are meant to outdo even what Neo was capable of.
Tatum spoke with MTV News at the press day for “White House Down,” where he also revealed a few details about the arduous shoot for “Jupiter Ascending,” which he admitted was pushing him in directions that he had never gone before.
“It’s crazy — it’s a tough movie,” Tatum told MTV News’ Josh Horowitz. “We’re trying to do stuff that’s never been done before, in three different aspects. We’re trying to do stuff that’s never been done in CG before, we’re doing stuff with cameras that’s never been done before, and we’re trying to do stuff with stunts — like, actual, real stuff so we don’t have to use a bunch of CGI stuff.”
Tatum’s pedigree as an action star is expanding at an exponential rate. Although he appeared in “Fighting” and the first “G.I. Joe” a few years ago, his supporting turn in “Haywire” led to not only “White House Down” but the opportunity he’s currently, ahem, “enjoying” on the set of the Wachowskis’ latest.
“We just did a shot yesterday that was unreal. It’s a trailer shot,” Tatum revealed. “It’s something exciting and something kind of scary at the same time, when everybody’s sitting around scratching their head going, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to do this shot.’ You’re just trying things to figure out how to make the shot work.”
Tatum said that the Wachowskis are putting him through his paces, but he’s optimistic that the end result will be nothing short of phenomenal. “You have a pre-vis that has already been cartooned out to the way they want it to look, and I’m trying to match that in physicality,” he explained. “It’s crushing, but when you do get it, it’s amazing. I just hope we finish the movie — because it’s killing me.”
“White House Down” opens in theaters nationwide June 28.
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