SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — In “Roofman,” Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst bring to life one of the wildest true stories you’ll ever see this year, about a man who secretly lived inside a Toys “R” Us for months while pulling off a string of thefts and, unexpectedly, finding love. Tomato-Meter Approved Film Critic and Celebrity Interview Patrick Beatty sat down with the duo to talk about their on-screen chemistry, the complicated emotions between their characters, the legendary “slip hazard” scene that’s bound to go viral, and the pranks their director pulled while filming inside the toy store that became their surreal set.
Patrick B: When you’re dealing with, like, somebody that’s kind of basing a relationship off of a lie. There’s still love in that relationship that you can see, but is that the basis of it? Still, when it’s being founded on something that’s not true?
Channing Tatum: Well, I think Jeff was, from my perspective, playing Jeff. Jeff was still being Jeff, like, he wasn’t playing a person. He just got a clean slate, and he got to start anew with people who would give him a shot and not come into it with any expectations or projections onto him, and he got to be the person that he kind of probably always wanted to be. I think if he found someone like Leigh earlier in life, he might not have made some good decisions.
Patrick B: Do you think Lee knew early on that he was being deceptive, or how long do you think it took?
Kirsten Dunst: I mean, I think, you know, you always have those pangs inside your gut and intuition, and like she didn’t want it to be true. So I think that she definitely turned a blind eye for a little bit. You know, before it bubbled to the top.
Patrick B: Some of the most fun moments are when you’re in the Toys R Us, just going through all kinds of shenanigans. I know the director here has a famous thing of pulling pranks on the cast and doing things. I have to ask about the slip hazard scene that will end all slip hazard scenes in film. How much of that was a prank and how much was actually planned?
Channing Tatum: The trip was definitely planned. Like the clothesline scene in the slippery slide shower. With Mr. Dinklage, that was actually the first time we had acted together fully, so that was fun. He was so sweet. That’s never an easy thing to do, is be like “Hi, Nice to meet you, this is going to be a fun day, all right, cool. He’s such a pro and such a like, just a beautiful human. I love him so much. He made that day so easy and fun, if one of those days can be fun. Because Derek (director) definitely, having filmed a lot with him before that scene, I knew that there was going to be, you know, not problems or tricks or anything, but because he didn’t actually know how he was going to shoot it. I didn’t know that we were going to do it in one continuous take where I was like, oh, I thought you’d picked the shots and the angles that you wouldn’t see stuff. So I think we had to do a lot in post to kind of make it not an X-rated movie.
Patrick B: We’ll watch the X-rated cut later.
Channing Tatum: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sure that’ll come out.
Patrick B: This is actually from our Good Things Utah Host, Nicea Degering. She has had a poster of Channing on her window for I don’t know how long, but she wants to switch it up, so she wanted to have you pitch to her. Why should Roofman be the new poster for her?
Channing Tatum: I don’t know what poster she has on, mine. But look, this is by far and away my favorite movie that I’ve ever been in, maybe my favorite ever. I think I’ve kind of reached a new place in my craft, or whatever we call this, and I’m just really proud of it. I love this movie. I love everyone in it, I love them all. Derek truly took me to a different place in my life, even. I think this is me, version 2.0 — or however many versions we’re at now. So maybe 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 — whatever it is, we’re there.
“Roofman” is now playing in theaters everywhere this week, so grab your tickets and see what all the hype’s about. And don’t miss Patrick’s full review, dropping this Friday on”See It or Skip It”.
See It or Skip It 