Channing Tatum reflects on bad side of ‘Incentivized’ Hollywood

Channing Tatum is pulling back the curtain on how tough it can be to navigate Hollywood today.

In a new episode of Hot Ones, the Roofman star shared that the movie business feels more complicated than ever. 

“I think, now, when you get asked to do a movie, or you’re trying to get a movie made, it’s a very confused pipeline of possibilities,” he explained. 

For him, the issue is that actors often face pressure to take on projects that aren’t meaningful just because of the paycheck. 

“It really feels like, at times, that you’re incentivized to make bad things to get paid, rather than make something really, really good, for the fucking people that actually get to see these things and [for the type of] people that I want to see these movies, the person that I was when I was a kid. And I want good movies.”

Tatum admitted that while the system feels “upside-down” right now, he’s optimistic about what’s ahead. 

“I’m like, ‘Man, I want to give my money to the good movies.’ It’s such an upside-down moment, but I do believe that the disruption is going to lead to something good. I do believe that. I do believe the streamers came in for a reason, and it had to change. It had to morph,” he said.

The actor also didn’t shy away from poking fun at some of his own past work.

Reflecting on his 2010 romance Dear John, he called it “such a generic” movie. And when talking about his cameo in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, he admitted he doesn’t really feel tied to it, saying he was only “in it for two seconds.”

For Tatum, the future of movies may be uncertain, but his hope for better storytelling, and his honesty about the challenges of the industry, shows just how much he still values the craft.