This upcoming Friday, October 10, is a big opening day for potential blockbuster movies. We’ve got Tron: Ares, After the Hunt, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. One of the lesser known films that’s also opening on the same day is Roofman, a crime comedy film starring Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Aduba, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, and more. It’s based on a true story about an escaped convict who hid out in a Toys R Us for months.

To promote the film, Channing appeared on one of my favorite shows, Hot Ones. He talked about a lot of things but something that stood out to me, a fan of bad movies, was Channing’s claim that actors are “incentivized” to make bad movies over the chance to make something really good. Why? It’s all about those Benjamins, baby.

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 f-cking 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.”

[From Variety]

”It really feels like, at times, that you’re incentivized to make bad things to get paid, rather than make something really, really good…” I’m going to say this in all caps because I truly mean it with all of my mind, body, and soul, but he better not be referring to White House Down. Is that movie basically a poor man’s version of Die Hard? Sure! Does it make me love it any less? Nope!

This is an interesting perspective because we generally hear from actors about how they’re looking for that one juicy award-bait project. It reminds me of a quote that I literally just spent almost a half hour Googling to try to cite exactly, but with no luck. I thought it was from Tropic Thunder, but it goes something like, ”You make the commercial movie to make the award-winning movie.” (Does anyone know what I’m talking about?) It’s not a bad observation, though, because we see a lot of bad movies and I’m sure some of the ones with the bigger names are because they were contractually obligated or owed someone higher up a favor in hopes of getting a juicier role in exchange. Also, I am shocked that he would dismiss his role as Gambit like that. Last I heard, he was still hoping to finally make that standalone Gambit movie happen. I wonder what’s going on behind the MCU scenes.

Here’s Channing’s full Hot Wings interview:

Photos credit: imago stock&people/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon