Channing Tatum apparently owes Amanda Bynes big time. If it weren't for her, another actor would have probably taken his role in "She's The Man."
In the same Paper interview, Bynes shared that she made a case for Tatum to star as her love interest in the film. At the time, Tatum was only a fledgling actor, and his only other acting credit was a small role in "Coach Carter," in which he starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson. "I totally fought for Channing [to get cast in] that movie because he wasn't famous yet," Bynes recalled. "He'd just done a Mountain Dew commercial and I was like, 'This guy's a star — every girl will love him!' But [the producers] were like, 'He's so much older than all of you!' And I was like, 'It doesn't matter! Trust me!'"
They did trust her, and the rest, as they say, is history. But of course, it wasn't like Tatum didn't blow the casting directors away. Director Andy Fickman told E! News that the "Step Up" actor impressed everyone during his audition. "We were looking at everybody for that role and then he came in," he said. "He walks in and you know, Channing was never a kid who was this polished Hollywood guy who had been acting since the age of three... He was not that kid. His charisma, which now the world knows in triplicate, was there from day one."
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmampjboJ5gI6apJqmlJZ6o8XNnqpmm5iWu6%2B1zaBkrZmkqrpur8CrnJ6qXw%3D%3D