Channing Tatum reveals he couldn’t sit still for his Thor audition with Kenneth Branagh
Channing Tatum had finally secured a place at the MCU, including taking part in one of the studio’s most anticipated projects of some time with Avengers: Doomsday. However, it didn’t come without its failures at first. For years, when Fox owned the X-Men property, Tatum had been trying to get a Gambit solo film off the ground, but to no avail. Then, the wild, crossover world of Deadpool & Wolverine would finally give the 21 Jump Street star the chance to don the trench coat and throw the playing cards.
However, Tatum reveals in his latest profile with Variety that he also auditioned to be in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. The Magic Mike star, however, admits he did not actually want the part, saying, “I didn’t really want to be Thor. But I wanted to audition in front of Kenneth Branagh.” He continues to say that his bombed audition actually taught him something about his acting. Tatum explained, “After I did one take, [Branagh] was like, ‘You’re not allowed to move. Put your hands on this chair.’ And I froze. He nailed my crutch. I spent the next five years really trying to learn stillness.”
Tatum would stay faithful to the Gambit character in Deadpool & Wolverine by speaking in his full-on Cajun accent — to where he sounded just like the character on the original X-Men animated series from the 90s and the revival. However, for Avengers: Doomsday, the execs “really had to wrap their mind around the accent and how people are going to understand him.” So, his solution was simple, “I’m not gonna go full Cajun. [Anthony and Joe Russo] want things to be funny, but they don’t want to go full Deadpool. They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious — when he drops the Mardi Gras mask — things do matter.”
Additionally, Tatum was able to do the interview with Variety stateside because a little mishap on Doomsday injured him and he would come back to recuperate. Tatum says, “We had tons more shooting,” which apparently included a “big fight” with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Tatum’s injury would prevent him from getting in on most of the action. So, his stuntman would be doubling him for the sequence while he filmed his close-ups. Tatum says the interview might’ve been more active without the injury, “We’d probably be bowling or something if I wasn’t like this.” He even took the day off from his pain meds, “so I wouldn’t be falling asleep on you and drooling. My body doesn’t do well with codeine — and those painkillers the U.K. docs gave me were strong.”
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