Video:Channing Tatum Interview - Dear John
with Rebecca MurrayChanning Tatum talked romance and Valentine's Day on the red carpet at the 'Dear John' premiere while his co-stars Cullen Moss and Keith Robinson explained the appeal of working on this romantic film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel.
Transcript:Channing Tatum Interview - Dear John
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Screen Gems' Dear John.
Channing Tatum - 'John Tyree' in Dear John
Have you heard anything about the alternate ending that was shot recently?Channing Tatum: "I have – obviously I was there to shoot it. But you know it's one of those things that I don't know if it's an alternate ending, really. I think that it's just a few more pages in the book. I don't know if it's a chapter. I don't know if it's the next page or 10,000 pages ahead. I really don't know, but it just adds onto the book. I don't think we changed very much. We took a little license here and there, but I'm really happy with it. I think it'll make the movie a little bit more accessible."
What's the best present you've received for Valentine's Day?
Channing Tatum: "I don't know if it was for Valentine's Day… I know the best present [Jenna Dewan] ever gave me. It was right when we had just got back from doing Step Up and I was still kind of new to Los Angeles. I didn't really feel like I had that many friends, and it was my birthday. We came back from somewhere, like grocery shopping or something, and then pretty much every person that I know in LA was at the house. She threw a surprise birthday – and she was just showing me that I do have friends and family here. And it was just beautiful because she was like, 'Look, you do have a family here. This is your home now.'"
Why are guys going to like this and it's not just for women?
Channing Tatum: "Look, I think one, there's a beautiful father/son role that I think a lot of guys will be able to relate to. I think that it's a little more gritty and more relevant, you know, because it's present day. We're dealing with issues that we have to deal with every day. I don't know. I hope it's not just one of those girl goes with the girl type of movies. I hope guys won't come out of it going, 'Thank god that's over!'"
What's the best and worst Valentine's Day you've ever had?
Channing Tatum: "Worst? I broke up with my high school sweetheart of like three years on Valentine's Day. But it was mutual. It wasn't one of those, 'I hate you!' It just was straight up like, 'We should do this so we can go and grow into our own people.'"
Are you completely healed? [Tatum suffered a burn to his private area during the filming of Eagle of the Ninth]
Channing Tatum: "Yes, I'm totally, fully recuperated. 100%"
Keith Robinson - 'Captain Stone' in Dear John
Keith Robinson: "Lasse is a great director to where he kind of lets the moment take itself. He doesn't dictate it so much; he kind of lets it happen organically. There's a scene with me and Channing where it's just me and him talking about him re-enlisting, that was pretty much pretty organic. We kind of went in on the day and kind of changed up the whole script, so to speak, as far as how we would say our lines. Lasse was very open to letting us communicate as actors so whenever you get a chance to do that, it's always a good thing."What was the appeal of a project like this? Are you into romantic movies?
Keith Robinson: "I'm into romance. I think the fact that I can probably take me girlfriend to a romantic flick and I'd be in it was probably the biggest draw. But a Nicholas Sparks novel is just a classic romance piece. He's just such a great writer and as an actor to be able to be a part of it is always cool. That in itself was enough draw for me."
Cullen Moss - 'Rooster' in Dear John
Now you see it's a Nicholas Sparks book so you know it's going to be romantic…Cullen Moss: "I was actually in The Notebook too."
So you know when you sign on to a Sparks project that it's a romance, and you're cool with that?
Cullen Moss: "I am, yeah, I am. And you know, the director – Lasse Hallstrom – he's amazing. I don't think it should be totally disregarded as a romantic fluff or anything like that. This kind of story is really true, and rings true for a lot of families and wives and girlfriends and boyfriends and husbands who have people overseas. It's a real thing. And of course it is a romantic story, but the director took care to bring about the reality as much as possible. He let us improvise a lot of things and really took special care with all that, I think, to make it as real as possible."
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