Channing Tatum was concerned while working with a first-time child actor, Mason Reeves, in the new film, Josephine.
Reeves plays the titular 8-year-old who witnesses a brutal sexual assault in a park and develops behavioral issues afterward. Tatum plays her dad, Damien, and Gemma Chan plays her mother, Claire.
The Blink Twice star was worried about the scenes where the father-daughter duo clash, thinking that Reeves may perceive his anger as real.
After the film’s Friday premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Tatum, Reeves, and Chan joined writer-director Beth de Araujo for a Q&A.
"This one made it a lot easier because it was just a lot of fun to get to play around with her," Tatum said.
Sharing his prime concern, he said, "I was more concerned with her not thinking that I was actually mad at her. I was like, 'You know, I was just acting. Right?'"
"He kept asking me about it, and I was like, I’m fine!," Reeves replied, making the audience laugh.
"I was so scared," Tatum admitted, laughing.
The Magic Mike star admitted that he cried "five, six, seven," times when he watched the film for the first time at the premiere. He dubbed Araujo a "master filmmaker."
The Sundance Film Festival will wrap on February 1.