The actor is at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting his new movie, ‘Josephine’
Credit: VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Channing Tatum reflects on the challenges of showing vulnerability to his daughter, Everly, following the premiere of his movie, Josephine, at the Toronto International Film Festival
- The actor plays a dad navigating trauma with his child in the acclaimed film
- Josephine will release in theaters on Nov. 20
Channing Tatum is opening up about fatherhood amid the premiere of his new movie, Josephine.
The actor, 46, got candid during a Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival following a screening of the movie, in which he plays a father struggling to help his 8-year-old daughter in the aftermath of a traumatic event. His character, Damien, tries to be brave for his daughter, played by Mason Reeves, encouraging her to lean into self-defense, while his wife, Claire (Gemma Chan), takes a different approach.
Like his character, Tatum says he wants to always be strong for his daughter, adding that it can be challenging to share vulnerabilities.
“It’s a really tough thing to tell the little being that you love more than anything in the world that you’re actually not okay,” he says. “I’ve had a moment with my daughter when I was hurt, and I was just like, ‘I’m just not okay right now,’ and you always wanna be like the strongest person, like the Superman in their life, and sometimes you just can’t.”
Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty
Tatum and his ex-wife Jenna Dewan welcomed their daughter, Everly, in 2013 before ultimately separating in 2018.
The actor has previously opened up about watching his daughter grow up so “fast” while appearing on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle in January.
“They say it happens fast, right? I felt like I left for two weeks to go do some press and I came back and it was the first two weeks of seventh grade and all the baby was gone,” Tatum said of Everly at the time.
“It was just gone in two weeks. I thought I was going to have three months or four months of like watching it sort of fade away, but now she’s a full-on teenager now,” he continued. “It’s beautiful but also like, you want to cry.”
Credit: Greta Zozula/Sumerian Pictures/Courtesy of Sundance Institute
As for how he bonded with his on-screen daughter in Josephine, Chan, 43, tells PEOPLE at the film’s red carpet that their little movie family spent time together outside of the movie set.
“We went to the park, we went on hikes, Channing and Mason went and got their nails done together at the salon,” she says.
Josephine, written and directed by Beth de Araújo, first premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the festival and an audience award before also premiering in February at the Berlin International Film Festival.
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Josephine will release in theaters on Nov. 20.
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