Long before becoming a Hollywood star, Channing Tatum was just 19 years old when he began working as a dancer in a Florida club. He stayed there for about eight months, performing in front of groups of women who, as he himself recounted, could become completely euphoric during his performances.
Money was one of the main reasons for doing it: on a good night he could earn around US$150, while on the worst nights he received between US$50 and US$70.
The women in the audience threw bills at him, and some even tucked them into his underwear while he danced. Years later, Tatum would describe that period as a much more chaotic experience than it might seem from the outside.
Before becoming an actor, he also worked as a model and in 2000 appeared as one of the dancers in the music video “She Bangs” by Ricky Martin, for which he received just US$400. Shortly afterward, he began landing acting jobs and his life took a completely different direction.
What is most curious is that this period ended up inspiring Magic Mike, the 2012 film that Tatum starred in and produced.
Although the story is not exactly his life, many of the experiences he had at 19 served as a starting point for building it. The photographs circulating today show a completely unknown Tatum: a 19-year-old who still did not know that he would go on to become one of Hollywood’s most famous stars.