Channing Tatum almost didn't make it to Magic Mike's Last Dance.
The 41-year-old actor discussed the upcoming third installment of the hit male stripper film franchise on The Kelly Clarkson Show Thursday, Feb. 17. There, he was shown a photo of himself shirtless and ripped as Mike, showcasing his dance moves, in the previous 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL.
"That might be the reason why I didn't want to do a third one," Tatum told host Kelly Clarkson. "Because I have to look like that."
He continued, "it's hard to look like that, even if you do work out, to be in that kind of in shape is not natural....you have to starve yourself. I don't think when you're that lean, it's actually healthy."
Tatum recalled having to "work out twice a day" and "eat completely right at a certain time." He also said his weight fluctuates about 15 pounds and spoke about diet challenges.
"Why, when it takes like, I don't know, two months to get really lean, in three days, you can ruin it?" he said. "It's gone. I was like, 'What happened?'"
When he's working to get leaner for a role, Tatum makes dietary sacrifices. "The thing I miss most probably is like, salt," he shared, noting how he has to cut out the sodium as he approaches "the day where you've got to be butt naked onscreen."
"Just everything tastes like, I don't know, tastes like water," he noted. "It's nothing."
It was confirmed last November that Magic Mike's Last Dance was in the works and would premiere on HBO Max. In recent weeks, the actor has been rehearsing for the project, which does not have plot details or a release date yet.
"I am very sore," he said on E!'s Daily Pop on Feb. 16. "There's a lot of lifting happening, I can say that."
Tatum added, there is "a lot of people lifting" in the film. "I've been friends with our choreographer Alison Faulk for something like almost 15 years," he said. "Making these dances up, like trying to figure them out with a best friend, you're just like, 'No, no, you've got to just put your leg here...' It's just hilarious."