This year may find Channing Tatum in the in his very fist Oscar campaign. The actor's performance in Bennett Miller's upcoming sports drama Foxcatcher has been earning rave reviews, and there have been whispers that he could be a very real contender as we get deeper into awards season. Critics have praised the intensity of his turn as wrestler Mark Schultz, and while most of us haven't had the chance to actually see the movie yet, his passion and intensity getting into the role is very much apparent in this newly revealed behind the scenes story.
The Hollywood Reporter has published a long, in-depth feature about Channing Tatum in their latest issue, and contained within that feature is a scary story about just how intense the actor got on the set of Foxcatcher. As you may have seen in the film's trailers, there is a scene in the movie where Tatum's character is trying to pump himself up, and after punching himself in the face a few times he winds up putting his face through a mirror. What you don't know is that filming the scene not only drew blood, but actually did his part to damage the set. Said director Bennett Miller describing the scene,
"He punched that thing with his head three times and shattered it, and put his head through it and through the frame behind the mirror and through the drywall that the mirror was hanging on and left a divot two inches deep. When we took the mirror down, there was a hole in the wall. And he actually cut himself, and you see his blood in that scene. This was somebody uncorking something that you can't make up. It's inside you somewhere or it's not."
The intensity here is no joke, and on full display in the gif below:
It's both impressive and scary that Channing Tatum could take his performance to this kind of place, and it's reminiscent of some other very passionate turns we've seen from dedicated actors over the years. In fact, this story is very similar to what happened with Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Django Unchained. During a monologue, the actor severely cut his hand, and while he began bleeding profusely as a result, it didn't derail him in the slightest. That take, like what happened on Foxcatcher, made it into the final version of the movie:
We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Foxcatcher in theaters, and the great news is that the wait is very nearly over. The movie will be available in limited release next Friday, November 14th.
