Channing Tatum has admitted that he experienced a time when he experimented with drugs during his stripper days. He opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about his known past as a sexy stripper, and his concealed past as a former drug user.
The movie takes its main character, Mike, to a stripper convention, which was quite similar to the one that Tatum had to attend during the late 90s. "I have no idea why it's called a convention," Tatum said. "The 'convention' was not stripper peddling stripper technology or anything like that. It was just a big show with 50 to 70 strippers and 2,000 to 3,000 women. It was crazy. They attacked me every night."
The "21 Jump Street" actor also recalled one specific incident when he was giving one of the women a lap dance. "The lady goes, 'Oh my God! Look at you! You remind me of my nephew!' - and then grabs me," Tatum recalled. "It hit me like a hand grenade. It was, like, 'Tick, tick, tick, boom.' She's grabbing my butt and saying, 'You remind me of my nephew.'"
The amazingly handsome actor, who originated from Cullman, Alabama, entered the world of stripping when he was only 19 years old. He had to drop out of the University of South Florida. "On a good night, I made 150 bucks. On a bad night, 70 bucks - even 50 at times," Channing Tatum shared about his stripper earnings.
He shared that there was a certain allure, at that early age, to unlimited partying, heavy drinking, and living a wild life in general. Part of that wild lifestyle, apparently, was dabbling in illegal substances. "I wouldn't say I was losing myself in drugs because I wasn't doing anything habitually," Tatum shared. "Just experimenting. Experimenting, I would say."
He then continued, "Never the big ones - crack or heroin. I never OD'd or anything. Never."
With regards to experimenting with cocaine, Channing Tatum revealed, "Maybe a couple times. But that was later. Drinking was probably the biggest thing. I didn't look at drinking as a problem. It wasn't at that point, and I still don't think it's a problem. But, at that time in my life, it was, 'Let's go out and have a great time.'"
