Magic Mike star Channing Tatum revealed to the public about his life before stardom - his ADHD and dyslexia diagnosis and his childhood poverty
The actor told The New York Times' T Magazine, "I've always negotiated the world very physically, from football to tussling at the playground to taking my clothes off, the 34-year-old actor continued "My dad's a physical guy. I think that's how I wanted to see myself as a kid, how I won approval, and it's no secret that that's how I got into this business. But over time I've been able to develop other aspects of myself, sort of on-the-job training."
Tatum, who used to be a stripper before his acting days, told the publication in relation to his role's problems and struggles with life. According to the actor, "Personally, I like being pushed into corners. It forces you to be creative. Being a stripper exposed me to a lot of people I might never have met, and that has turned out to be a gift. There are lots of characters I feel I can play as a result. So when people tell me they want to act, I'm like, 'Okay, if you want to act, go see America. If you can afford gas money, go talk to people and see how they really live.'"
Tatum also talked about his childhood, saying: "Sure, you can go to theater class at a young age. That's not how I did it. I would have loved to learn things earlier than I did, but then maybe I wouldn't have gone and done the things that gave me insight into what it is to be human - to have fears and wants. Like the fear of asking a girl out on a date when I can't afford dinner at Chili's, so instead maybe we go to Checkers and I make it cool by turning it into a picnic, put the burgers in a basket of my mom's and try to make it romantic. That's the kind of worry I used to have."
Aside from his struggle with money, Tatum also opened up about his ADHD and dyslexia when he was a kid, "I have never considered myself a very smart person, for a lot of reasons. You get lumped in classes with kids with autism and Down syndrome, and you look around and say, 'Okay, so this is where I'm at.' Or you get put in the typical classes and you say, 'All right, I'm obviously not like these kids either.' So you're kind of nowhere. You're just different. The system is broken. If we can streamline a multibillion-dollar company, we should be able to help kids who struggle the way I did."
