Channing Tatum may be a hunky Hollywood movie star who lives in a gorgeous home with his beautiful wife (Jenna Dewan), but things weren’t always so picture-perfect for the 29-year-old actor.
In the new issue Details, the “Dear John” star reveals that while he’s “always been good at picking up certain things, like sports and dancing,” he struggled with school. “I could never read very fast or very well,” he shares. “I was tested for learning disabilities, for dyslexia.”
Eventually, in the eighth grade, Channing was put on Ritalin and Dexedrine to treat his attention-deficit disorder. While the drugs helped him to focus and turn his grades around, it had a negative side effect: depression.
“The longer I took Dexedrine, the worse I felt,” he says. “It sucked all the personality from me. I’d get depressed. I would think suicidal — I was never personally suicidal, but I could see how some kids were, how they’d be, like, I can’t take this anymore.”
During his senior year of high school, Channing decided he didn’t want to be medicated anymore. He graduated, then went on to attend a small college in West Virginia on a football scholarship. After a year, he returned to Tampa, Florida, where he took on a series of odd jobs including everything from being a mortgage broker to a telemarketer to a … stripper!?
Yes, in case you didn’t know, Tatum had moves long before he starred in “Step Up.” In 1999, the actor performed as part of a dance revue called Male Encounter using the stage name Chan Crawford.
Although his handlers did their best to keep Tatum’s secret stripper past under wraps, the actor says he never tried to hide it.
“I’ve been wanting to talk about this forever!” he exclaims. “I’m happy I did it. I’m not proud, because it’s not something to be proud of, but I had an experience that only one out of a thousand — a million — people can say they’ve ever had. I’ve been through this crazy sort of life, and I came out the other side fairly unscathed.”
See more ‘teaser’ photos from his magazine shoot - HERE!
source: OMG!
