Channing Tatum's real-life stripper past is nothing to be ashamed of.
His year of exotic dancing experience at age 19 inspired him to create and star in not one, but two movies (2012's Magic Mike and the upcoming Magic Mike XXL). The 34-year-old actor owes some of his success to his scantily-clad past, but it's still not the kind of thing you talk to your parents about...
In fact, Channing's dad Glenn only found out about his son's stripping days in 2010 while watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show! It was shortly after that, Channing told The Hollywood Reporter, that his dad brought up the topic for the first and only time.
"We were walking together, and my dad said: 'Why? You didn't need the money. We always provided,'" Channing recalled.
Seeing his father blame himself "broke my heart," he said. "I told him it had nothing to do with him. 'That was my road. That was the road I had to take.'"
Back in 1999, though, stripping wasn't providing too much of a pay-out—even with that bod and those moves (you've seen Magic Mike!). So how much did he make? "Not as much as you'd think," he told THR. "On a good night, 150 bucks. On a bad night, 70 bucks—even 50 at times."
Channing was drawn to the risk and thrill that came with the gig, he said, which included "experimenting" with drugs. "Never the big ones—crack or heroin," he clarified. "Drinking was probably the biggest [thing]. I didn't look at drinking as a problem. It wasn't at that point, and I still don't think it's a problem. But at that time in my life, it was, 'Let's go out and have a great time.'"
That he did, and he's parlayed the experiences into a lucrative franchise. He also grew out of the wild child phase and is now a happily married man (who calls divorce rumors surrounding him and wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum "bulls--t") and father of one (daughter Everly is 17 months) and is close with his own parents, too. Pals of Chan's note that they've met Mr. and Mrs. Tatum on several shoots. He's a proud mama's boy, too, gushing, "My mom is literally one of the most supportive and sweetest people on the face of the earth."