Channing Tatum is "Dukeing" It Out!

In the hard-driving actioner G.I. Joe, hunky heartthrob Channing Tatum, who has just married his on-screen sweetheart Jenna Dewan from Step Up, plays Duke, the stalwart leader of the elite and top secret fighting G.I. Joe squad. The good guys are using some state of the art tech stuff in their war against the evil arms dealer Destro and a new nemesis; the COBRA organization. Before you say, 'hey, I used to play with those toys as a kid'. Or, 'that's guy stuff', know that the eye-popping film isn't about toys or just for guys. It has a little romance, some hot female smarts and hey, Channing and Marlon Wayans look way cut and buff!

It's notable that Channing is up for a Teen Choice award as Choice Movie Actor: Drama for his gutsy portrayal of a New York street kid in Fighting. I got to chat with the soft-spoken mega-hottie (geez, could this guy be any more polite to women?) and got his tips for teens, stories from the set, his take on marriage so far, why he's been playing a lot of soldiers lately and what co-star Sienna Miller told him he should be doing in Duke's Accelerator Suit! First of all, congrats are in order......

TeenHollywood: Hey congrats to you and wife Jenna (Dewan of Step Up) on getting hitched.

Channing: Thanks so much.

TeenHollywood: So what is the biggest surprise about being married so far?

Channing: Nothing. I never do anything that I don't know the outcome already. I'm kind of a sure bet person. I'm the happiest person on the entire planet!

TeenHollywood: Awww. Spoken like a true newlywed! Okay on to G.I. Joe. Dude, you play a lot of soldiers, in this one, in Stop Loss, in Dear John and I've heard coming up in Eagle of the Ninth and maybe Pinkville. What is it about the military that draws you to these roles? Is it guns or heroism or patriotism? What?

Channing: I think, for one, soldiers in general, they are the bravest and most honor-filled, I guess workers there are. It's a job. They do a job and they have the most important job, probably on the planet. And, there's something so selfless about being a soldier. Yeah, you can be a police officer and that's doing your duty but there's something about being a soldier and going into foreign lands and protecting and fighting for your country that is just unprecedented to me.

TeenHollywood: You weren't in the military at any point were you?

Channing: I wish I could say I had the courage to do that but, obviously, I didn't go into the military for, probably, a reason. I don't know if I could have done it. Those guys are just incredible individuals. I hope that they know that I really believe that and I'm not just some actor that's doing those roles and I'm just like 'oh, yeah, I love soldiers'. I do. I have the utmost respect for them.

TeenHollywood: Awesome. Okay fill in the blank here. 'When I was 16, I was _____'?

Channing: Trouble!

TeenHollywood: What kinds of trouble did you get into?

Channing: Probably nothing out of the norm. Just thinking that the world was against me and nobody knew what they were talking about. It doesn't make sense to you at the time. You're like 'oh, I know everything and they know nothing'. I don't know what it is but it's something in the genes or the chemicals in the body (at that age). Something weird.

TeenHollywood: What is your advice to teens? You've successfully lived through those years and, often, they just aren't fun.

Channing: No, they aren't. To really just pick something that you are passionate about. A lot of kids just sort of float through like I did. All I knew that I wanted to do was play football. I loved playing football and I took that as far as I wanted to take it and then I was like 'okay, I'm done with this' and I'm glad I had that one thing. Just pick one thing that you want to do and really go after it so you can say you really went after something until you don't want that anymore. Then turn to your left and see what's there until you want something else. Don't just sit back on your hands and watch life go by. In later life you'll be like 'I wish I had done that more. I wish I was more prepared now for something'.

TeenHollywood: Good advice. What is your description of who your character Duke is and how are you like him?

Channing: It's really hard to compare yourself to a hero or even a soldier if you are not a soldier but it's really rare to have a true, real hero in a movie that is a good guy and have actual bad guys who want to do really bad things. In a lot of dramas, everybody is kind of good. Even the bad guys have motivations that make them feel like they're right. In this movie there are just heroes and villains. I guess I would have to hope that I was like a hero if the time came.

TeenHollywood: You would 'step up' so to speak....

Channing: Yeah (he sings) 'Step Up'.

TeenHollywood: Okay, a lot of our visitors are female. Why do you think girls would like G.I. Joe?

Channing: One, there's two really strong female characters (the Baroness and Scarlett) and they have a wicked girlfight. They throw down in this movie. I'm not a guy who says 'oh yeah. I want to see girls fight'. I'm not that guy but they impressed the hell out of me. I was just like 'wow. They really worked it right'. They're strong women and there are beautiful romances in the movie but not too overly done. It's an action movie. Look, there's Marlon Wayans all greased up and lookin' buff.

TeenHollywood: Hey, Channing... there's you!

Channing: (softly) I wasn't going to say that (laughs).

TeenHollywood: So what was it like working with Sienna who was wearing a suit so tight that she literally couldn't sit down?

Channing: (laughs) Yeah, she was but me and Marlon had no sympathy for them (the girls). We were in those Accelerator Suits for hours at a time and they were worse. We didn't have a lot of time to make them so they made them to look good and not very serviceable. There wasn't a zipper or a flap and it took an hour to get into those things.

TeenHollywood: Yikes!

Channing: But, Sienna's outfit was amazing. She looked amazing in it. I think the costumers did an amazing job.

TeenHollywood: What would you do if you had one of those suits?

Channing: A hot leather suit! Who would I want to see in a hot leather suit? (he's teasing).

TeenHollywood: Noooo. What would you want to do in a real Accelerator Suit?

Channing: Ooooh. Let's see. Me and Sienna were sitting there talking and I was like 'what would I do with that? I don't even know' and she was like 'Maybe, probably get through traffic'. Because, living in L.A., there's always traffic. I'll take three suits!

TeenHollywood: Me too! I live in L.A. as well. Are you and Jenna still going to live in L.A.?

Channing: Yeah, for sure. We'll probably be there for a while. We haven't made a decision yet.

TeenHollywood: For you, what was the coolest gadget or outfit in the film?

Channing: I like Snake Eyes' uniform. I thought that was pretty dope. They created a Kevlar suit for him. It just looks really cool and I wanted it. He is who I liked (of the G.I. Joe characters) from my childhood. I wanted to be a ninja all my life.

TeenHollywood: It's got to be bizarre to be turned into one of your favorite toys.

Channing: It is really weird, especially to see Marlon playing with my head. He's the last person on the planet I'd want to have my head in his hands!

TeenHollywood: In G.I. Joe, the bad guy is destroying huge international monuments like the Eiffel Tower. What monument, in the whole world, would you just be ultra-pissed if it were destroyed?

Channing: I guess it has to be the Statue of Liberty. I'm a true-blooded American from the South so I guess it would have to be that.

TeenHollywood: You'd have to go get them if they did that, huh?

Channing: Yeah. I'd be enlisting for sure!

TeenHollywood: Which of the green screen scenes was the most difficult to shoot for you? Or most difficult to pretend something was happening?

Channing: I guess a lot of the underwater stuff. We were in these little pods, like an escape pod. They were really cool but me and Sienna were in these things for hours and they're like 'duck left', 'turn right!'

TeenHollywood: So the pods weren't CGI. They were actually on set?

Channing: Yeah and we were playing make-believe so that was probably the hardest to imagine. But there is a lot of the movie that we really did. There is a whole opening fight scene that me and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans' character) are in with the military and we're really blowing up all kinds of stuff, flipping vehicles and bringing down helicopters. It was nutz. That stuff was really happening.

TeenHollywood: So what are you doing next? We've heard all kinds of rumors.

Channing: Eagle of the Ninth.

TeenHollywood: Okay, that's the movie about a Roman Army guy, right? So you have to wear one of those little Roman soldier skirts?

Channing: (laughs) Yeah, I get to wear a skirt or a tunic or something. I guess I get really cool body armor though.

TeenHollywood: Is Pinkville out?

Channing: Pinkville is a movie with Oliver Stone that we were going to go do right after Fighting and it sort of stalled out. Everyone started to shy away from war movies (in this case the Vietnam war My Lai massacre) and I don't need to play a soldier again any time soon.

TeenHollywood: Are you still developing and producing your own projects?

Channing: Yeah, I would love to do that. We have some things we're working on in the writing stages and when they are right, they'll be ready. I also really want to work with Dito Montiel (his friend and director on both A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and the recent Fighting) on Son of No One. I hope we get a chance to do that. We're hoping around Christmas.