Fly Me to the Moon: Channing Tatum Reveals Why He “Always Fought” to Do His Own Stunts

Fly Me to the Moon chronicles the Apollo 11 mission like its never been seen before. The Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum-led picture takes the real-life space race of the 1960s and adds in a conspiratorial twist, as Johansson’s Kelly Jones fronts the top-secret “Project Artemis,” a contingency plan to shoot faked footage of the moon landing, parallel to Tatum’s Cole Davis’s legitimate moon landing efforts with NASA. With the camera quality of the 1960s, the Project Artemis footage is all-but indistinguishable from what would actually get captured on the lunar surface, but the internal knowledge of which is which propels the push to succeed with the moon landing mission.

Channing Tatum Did Stunt Work in Fly Me to the Moon

That in-script concept is applicable to the making of Fly Me to the Moon itself. Speaking to ComicBook at the Fly Me to the Moon press junket, leading man Channing Tatum noted that he has “always fought” to do his own stunts.

“Probably even more so than CGI [versus practical effects] is when they want to put it in the stunt guy or something like that,” Tatum shared. “I think that’s been more of my experience where they have to cut away from like the face or the pain or whatever when you hit the ground, I’ve always fought for doing as much as you can possibly do while your physical body can actually do it. Sooner or later, I’m going to get too old to be able to do it.”

Action has been a constant of Tatum’s career. The longtime actor has starred in high-octane projects like GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, White House Down, and 21 Jump Street, all of which necessitated physicality from their ensembles.

Even with this latest project operating more so as a romantic comedy, Tatum brought this mindset to Fly Me to the Moon right off the bat, as his character’s introductory scene sees Tatum performing a legitimate stunt. Tatum’s Cole Davis is brought into the film conducting a test at NASA that unexpectedly goes wrong, resulting in an explosion that legitimately sent Tatum flying towards a window.

“People are smart now. They know what movies are like. They know when they cut away. They know when it’s CGI,” Tatum continued. “And I think the more you can do real, the more they’ll feel it.”

Fly Me to the Moon soars into theaters on Friday, July 12th.