(SPOILERS FOR “DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE”)A “grateful” Channing Tatumtook to social media to thank Ryan Reynolds and his Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy for making his superhero dreams come true.
Tatum, who stole scenes from Reynolds in his previous Levy collab, the hit Free Guy, spent four years trying to get a movie based on the X-Men character Gambit off the ground — only to have the project fall apart when 20th Century Fox was acquired by ABC News’ parent company Disney.
(Spoilers, final warning)However, Reynolds gave Tatum a chance to suit up in his new movie.
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever, but he fought for me and Gambit,” the actor expressed on X.
“I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy.”
Tatum’s post came with a throwback photo of him and Ryan from San Diego Comic-Con in 2015 — when Reynolds first teased footage from what would become 2016’s Deadpool — and a pic from the “Deadpool & Wolverine Ultimate Festival of Life” last week.
In both photos, Channing is wearing the same t-shirt with Gambit’s face on it.
The actor recalled of the throwback meeting, “I think I ran back stage [sic] … and I think I just hugged him and was like holy s*** you did it man. It’s perfect.”
Tatum continued, “I didn’t know him really at all back then. But since then I can say that there is almost no one that has had my back in this industry more than [Ryan].”
Channing called Levy a “brilliant creator” who made a “masterpiece” in Deadpool & Wolverine that left him “literally screaming in the theater.”
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Joaquin Phoenix intentionally made himself thin to the point of looking sickly for 2019’s Joker, shedding more than 50 pounds in a performance that won him a Best Actor Oscar.
But to play Arthur Fleck aka Joker in the forthcoming sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, he had to do it all over again — something made more difficult by the film’s new physical requirements, he told a panel at the Venice Film Festival, where the movie premieres Wednesday.
“I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet, because I just think nobody wants to hear that,” he said Wednesday, according toVariety.
The new movie, in which Phoenix stars opposite Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, prominently features music and dance sequences, unlike director Todd Phillips‘ blockbuster original.
The actor continued, “This time, it felt a bit more complicated just because there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time. So it felt a bit more difficult.”
He added, “I’m now 49, I probably shouldn’t do this again. This is probably it for me.”
He also said that Gaga “also lost a lot of weight,” noting, “It was really impressive.”
For her part, the actress/recording artist demurred, saying, “I think we transformed into our characters over a period of time, and we continued to hone in every kind of detail.”
For the record, Phoenix admitted to being “so angry” at himself “for making such a big deal about” the weight loss last time, because “it just sounds like an actor going on and on about how much weight they lost.”
“You just do what you’re f****** supposed to do,” he continued. “So this time I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that.'”
In an upset, Hacks beat The Bear for Outstanding Comedy Series at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, but the FX series still walked away with an mantel full of awards for its second season. In fact, it beat its previous record, snagging 11.
Jeremy Allen White won for a second year in a row in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy category; Ebon Moss- Bachrach also repeated in the Best Supporting Actor category. Liza Colón-Zayas became the first Latina to win in the Supporting Actress category.
At the Creative Arts Emmys prior to Sunday’s show, White’s onscreen brother and mom, Jon Bernthal and Jamie Lee Curtis, snagged respective Emmys in the Outstanding Guest Actor and Actress categories for the series.
Backstage, White was in the mood to celebrate. “The fact that … Jamie and Bernthal won last weekend and that was so beautiful getting to see Lisa — I was … backstage and I got to go in the wings and watch her accept. And that was just the greatest.”
Jeremy also called co-star Lionel Boyce‘s nomination “so massive,” saying, “Everybody does such beautiful work on the show. And yeah, to see them recognized, it just it makes me so happy.”
Meanwhile, also backstage, Colón-Zayas says her win was for all the Tinas out there: women of a certain age who are still working hard to realize their dreams. “I really want us to … remember our worth. And we, all our voices, our stories, are compelling, they are many and they are profitable. So let’s all start paying attention.”