Channing Tatum wishes he'd said yes to Guillermo del Toro's Beauty And The Beast

It isn’t the first time Tatum turned down a potentially career-changing role. Back in the early 2000s, his eventual Roofman director Derek Cianfrance offered him the lead in a project that would eventually become Blue Valentine. In a joint interview with Variety, Tatum admitted he didn’t even remember declining the role at first. “I think I blocked it out because I probably, on some level, regret it,” the actor said. “When I really look back on that moment, I was scared of [the role], because I hadn’t really lived it.” 

Cianfrance moved on to Ryan Gosling, and Guillermo del Toro moved on to other projects, never realizing his vision for Beauty And The Beast. (del Toro was going to direct a version for Warner Bros., with Emma Watson attached to star; he dropped out in 2014, and she ended up in Disney’s live-action remake instead.) “He’s got a billion other things that he wants to do. He’s such a creator,” Channing Tatum says to Vanity Fair. “I’ll probably never forgive myself on that one, but I hope we get to work together one day. Like Derek and I did. I think Blue Valentine time was always supposed to be Ryan [Gosling]’s. At that point in my life, it was such a sad story, and I had not had a sad relationship like that. I just don’t think I could have done it.”

His Roofman co-star Kirsten Dunst observes wisely: “Some things I’ve not done have been great opportunities for other people, and some things that other people haven’t done have been great opportunities for me. So I honestly believe that the right creatives come together. I don’t have any regrets.”