Beauty is pain, as the beautiful will tell you. Just ask Channing Tatum. The actor is doing press rounds for his new movie Dog, which he also co-directed, and one thing he’s being asked about is the thus-far McConaughey-less Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the threequel to his stripper saga that first stimulated audiences a decade ago. And he revealed he almost turned it down, if only because it is a giant pain in the neck to get in stripper shape.
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Tatum was asked about getting back into the extensive fitness regimen for the third film. “That might be the reason why I didn’t want to do a third one,” Tatum revealed. “Because I have to look like that.”
He went on. “It’s hard to look like that. Even if you do work out, to be that kind of in shape is not natural,” he said. “That’s not even healthy. You have to starve yourself. I don’t think when you’re that lean, it’s actually healthy.”
Besides, he’s also a dad. “I don’t know how people who work a 9 to 5 actually stay in shape because it’s my full-time job, and I can barely do it,” he confessed.
Tatum, who’s now in his early 40s, said that he got back into Magic Mike shape by working out twice a day and eating “completely right.” Even then, he found that a six pack can go away just like that.
“Why — when it takes like, I don’t know, two months to get really lean — in three days, you can lose it?” he said. “It’s gone. I was like, ‘What happened?’”
So when you see Magic Mike’s Last Dance, whenever it’s ready, appreciate how much pain Tatum went through to look that good.
(Via People)