“I’d never been in a comedy before,” says Tatum. “I learned to trust the process – I mean, Jonah is so good, he can throw out four or five different ways of saying a line, one right after another. I trust him, and Chris and Phil – I’m among friends. If they’re laughing, you know it’s funny.”
Now, Tatum reunites with the gang in Columbia Pictures’ highly anticipated sequel, “22 Jump Street.”
Since working on the first film, Tatum has gained the confidence that he can perform in a comedy alongside Hill. Hill was always a believer in Tatum’s comedy skills, but says Tatum has even raised his game. “We always knew he had the ability to be funny and great in this kind of film, but it was great to see him have the confidence of knowing he wasn’t going to look bad,” says Hill. “He went in there and he killed the scenes even harder.”
In “22 Jump Street,” big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college – after making their way
“We got inspired by the idea that Jenko and Schmidt are each other’s ‘hometown honey’ – but they go to college, and the world is opened up to them,” says Lord.
Tatum’s character, Jenko, has found somebody with a few more of his shared interests. When their investigation leads them to look into the football team, Jenko finds a kindred spirit in Zook, the team’s quarterback, played by Wyatt Russell. Before long, the bromance that seemed made in heaven is in trouble. “Zook is kind of Jenko’s man-crush,” says Tatum. “There are jealousy issues immediately – and those issues get in the way of the case that Schmidt and Jenko are supposed to be working. They end up investigating separately.”
In the first film, as the characters went back to high school, their expectations were turned around – the nerdy Schmidt was now in the popular crowd, and Jenko was on the outside. Producer Tania Landau says that as the guys go to college, “we wanted to flip it,” she explains. “Like a lot of people who didn’t fit in when they were in high school, Schmidt expects that everything will be different in college. And Jenko worries that he’s not up to snuff. But their expectations are turned around again.”
Still, that was long ago, and Tatum isn’t 19 anymore. “I hadn’t played football in 14 years,” he explains. “I’ve got a torn ligament in my right foot that has become a chronic thing. And I rolled my ankle two weeks into the football scenes. Even so, I loved it – it was nostalgic for me to get out there and bang heads again. It was interesting and weird to relive that time in my life, but also fun – if I’d ended up going to that school, there would have been great parts, like my parents would have been able to see me play. But who knows if I would be acting today?”
Opening across the Philippines in June 18, “22 Jump Street” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.