Channing Tatum Regrets Turning Down This Ryan Gosling Movie With 87% On Rotten Tomatoes
Had things played out differently, Channing Tatum might've gone down a very different road in the early days of his career. Given his athletic prowess and himbo allure, it's no wonder that Hollywood initially tried to position him as a stock leading man, starting with his turn as Duke in 2009's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" (a fella so swelteringly hot, he has to wear sunglasses in the rain). But Tatum had already demonstrated his ability to go deeper emotionally as an actor, having played the eruptive Antonio as a younger man in Dito Montiel's dramatic film "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" three years prior. It was this role, in particular, that convinced Derek Cianfrance that Tatum would be perfect for the male lead in the writer-director's then-developing relationship drama, "Blue Valentine."
Speaking with Variety about their true story-inspired crime dramedy "Roofman" at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Cianfrance and Tatum revealed that they had nearly worked together almost two decades earlier on Cianfrance's breakout film. After seeing the "Magic Mike" star in Montiel's drama, Cianfrance was convinced he had the potential to become a powerhouse of the screen on the level with Marlon Brando, stating, "He's got this physicality — this body that can tell stories." Tatum, meanwhile, admitted that he had more or less blocked out turning down "Blue Valentine" for years because of how much he came to regret his decision. "When I really look back on that moment, I was scared of it, because I hadn't really lived it," he explained.
Ultimately, Ryan Gosling signed on to star opposite Michelle Williams in the film, which went on to become an Oscar-nominated critical sensation upon its eventual release in 2010 (earning an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes). But while it was very much a case of all's well that ends well, one does wonder how the movie would've turned out with Tatum instead.
Blue Valentine was fine without Tatum, but his casting might've still worked
Interestingly, Tatum's comments recall what Williams has previously said about "Blue Valentine" and how, in many ways, she was glad that the project wound up spending years stuck in limbo since it gave her a chance to gain some more relevant lived experience under her belt. Gosling, meanwhile, is pretty perfectly cast in the movie as Dean Pereira, a handsome born-romantic bursting with vigor and creativity who both falls in love with and decides to start a family with Williams' much more practical-minded Cynthia "Cindy" Heller under not-so-ideal circumstances. This being a Cianfrance joint and all, you can probably surmise that things don't end happily.
All the same, you can see why Cianfrance would've wanted Tatum to play Dean, as he could've easily infused the younger iteration of the character with all the charm and heart he needed. Dean then becomes a bit of an underachieving (and balding) man-child in the segments of the film that flash forward to Dean and Cindy years later as a married couple on the rocks. By that point, though, he essentially resembles a more believable version of what Tatum's happy-go-lucky Greg Jenko from "21 Jump Street" would probably be like if he were a real person — that and if he'd never met his true soulmate in Jonah Hill's Morton Schmidt, naturally. Luckily for Schmidt, that's precisely what happened.
As for Tatum? He was spared from having to play more milquetoast leads in studio-approved IP-based rubbish soon after "G.I. Joe" earned middling returns. C-Tates would even find his own kindred (artistic) spirit in Steven Soderbergh, starting with their team-up on the 2012 action-thriller "Haywire" and continuing on to the "Magic Mike" movies, "Side Effects," and "Logan Lucky." And hey, it might've taken more than 15 years, but Tatum and Cianfrance eventually found their way back to each other. True love is worth the wait, after all.
"Roofman" opens in theaters on October 10, 2025.