Channing Tatum Says Actors are Encouraged to Make Bad Things For Money

Channing Tatum is getting candid about navigating the movie business.

During a recent appearance on “Hot Ones,” the “Roofman” star said that in the current state of the industry, it feels like actors are “incentivized” to appear in subpar productions for money rather than take a big swing on something “really, really good.”

“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,” Tatum said. “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.”

He added, “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.”

Later in the episode, Tatum took a few jabs at his past work. When asked about his 2010 romance “Dear John,” he called it “such a generic” movie. When speaking about his role in 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” he said he doesn’t feel like “part of” the film since he was only “in it for two seconds.”

This is not the first time Tatum spoke up about Hollywood’s troubles. In his Variety cover story, the “Magic Mike” star said that streamers have caused serious confusion in the entertainment industry, both “for good and bad.”

“The streamers came in and effed up the industry a bit — for good and for bad. The studios are confused; the streamers are confused,” he said. “You’re incentivizing me to go make a subpar movie — a B script, a programmer that isn’t special.”

See Tatum’s entire “Hot Ones” episode below.