Channing Tatum wanted to be the strongest person in his daughter’s life, but one of the hardest parts of fatherhood was to admit that he cannot always manage it, People reported.
Speaking after a Toronto International Film Festival screening of Josephine , the actor recalled telling his daughter he was struggling: «I’m just not okay right now.» He described wanting to be her «Superman», even when he was hurting.
Tatum shares 13-year-old Everly with his former wife, Jenna Dewan. His comments came while promoting a film about a father who cannot easily make his own daughter feel safe.
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What made Channing Tatum reconsider parenting?
In Josephine, an eight-year-old girl witnesses a crime in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She begins acting out as she tries to regain a sense of safety, while the adults around her struggle to help. Mason Reeves plays Josephine, with Tatum and Gemma Chan as her parents.
Written and directed by Beth de Araújo, Josephine won both the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance. It is scheduled to open in US cinemas on 20 November.
At the film’s Sundance premiere in January, Tatum said the role had prompted him to examine how his parents communicate with his daughter. His Toronto admission returns to that same problem: wanting to reassure a child while having difficult feelings of his own.
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In a 2021 interview for the Bustle, he described painting his nails, looking for fairies and learning to braid hair. Everly also inspired his children’s book The One and Only Sparkella, about a girl afraid of being mocked for standing out.
