Channing Tatum Discusses His Hatred for the G.I. JOE Movie and How He Pushed to Be Killed off in the Sequel

Channing Tatum has been very vocal about how much he hated being a part of 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In a recent interview, the actor revealed that he tried to stay out of the movie and passed on it seven times before he was forced to do it due to contractual obligations.

Tatum participated in a lie detector test for Vanity Fair, and when asked about that movie he said:

“The first one I passed on seven times, but they had an option on me and I had to do the movie. So the second one, I obviously just didn’t want to do that one either.”

The actor went on to confirm that he pushed to be killed off in the first 10 minutes of the sequel, 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, so that he wouldn’t have to be a part of the franchise anymore. When asked if he regretted that decision, he bluntly said, “No.” I don’t blame him! Those G.I. Joe movies sucked! It’s a shame that the Paramount Studios executives and the filmmakers didn’t know how to handle that franchise properly.

Tatum previously told Howard Stern how much he hated those films and why he didn’t want to do it:

“Look, I’ll be honest. I f**king hate that movie. I hate that movie. I was pushed into doing that movie. From ‘Coach Carter,’ they signed me to a three-picture deal…They give you the contract and they go, ‘Three-picture deal, here you go.’ And as a young [actor], you’re like, ‘Oh my god, that sounds amazing, I’m doing that!’ Time goes by and you get other jobs and you’re building your quote and you have a dream job you want to do. And … the studio calls up and they’re like, ‘Hey, we got a movie for you, we’re going to send it to you.’ And they send it to you, and it’s G.I. Joe.

“And I love G.I. Joe: ‘Can I play Snake Eyes?’ And they’re like, ‘No, you’re not playing Snake Eyes, you’re playing G.I. Joe.’ The script wasn’t any good… And I didn’t want to do something that I… was a fan of since I was a kid and watched every morning growing up — and didn’t want to do something that was, one, bad and, two, I just didn’t know if I wanted to be G.I. Joe.”

I wasn’t a fan of Channing Tatum for being a part of those G.I. Joe movies, but now that I know he wasn’t happy with it and tried to get out of it because he knew it was going to suck, I won’t hold that against him anymore.

Watch Tatum’s full lie detector interview in the video below.