Going completely bare gave Channing Tatum a little performance anxiety.

That may sound surprising considering the 45-year-old is no stranger to stripping down having played an exotic dancer as the titular role in the Make Mike franchise, which was based on his actual experience as a stripper in his younger days.

Alexa, play “Pony” by Ginuwine.

Taking it all off

But in the recently released crime drama Roofman, Channing didn’t even have a g-string to literally have his back.

The film tells the story of real-life criminal Jeffrey Manchester, who famously hid out in a Toys “R” Us store after escaping from the slammer.

Tatum plays Manchester and part of the role required him to take it all off to re-create a scene where Manchester runs through the store completely in the buff.

In a new interview with co-star Kirsten Dunst, Tatum explained how director Derek Cianfrance didn’t really have a plan for how much they would or would not show of his fully exposed bulge and that rattled the seasoned actor.

“I was naive, I guess, and thought that there was a plan to shoot this in a certain way,” Tatum told The Hollywood Reporter.

Tatum and Cianfrance went back and forth over how the scene would be orchestrated to minimize exposure.

“We’re not not going to see stuff. I got nothing on,” Tatum pressed to the filmmaker, who insisted they would “figure it out” later on. Cianfrance’s laid back approach to Tatum putting it all out there did not sit well with him.

“What do you mean you don’t know? We’re going to see stuff if you don’t have a plan,” Tatum shot back.

Being a professional, Tatum rolled with the punches and shot the scene and hoped for the best.

“But you just kind of have to just rip the bandaid and just say, ‘All right, I don’t know. I don’t care. Let’s just get it. Roll the camera,’” he shared. ” I wish we only did it twice. We did it a lot. A lot. A lot.”

👀

However, once the scene was shot they realized you could see ALL of Tatum. Cianfrance considered putting a black bar to hide Tatum’s fully visible appendage, but that was later nixed.

While leaving the editing to the filmmaker, Tatum implored him to simultaneously not show too much of him nor too little. Give the people what they want!

“I don’t want to look like a Ken doll. There’s nothing there. That’s horrible. I don’t want to look like I have a mound or something,” he recounted to Dunst. “Just don’t make it look weird. Don’t make it look like I don’t have something, but don’t make it NC 17.”

In the end, there was a lot of Tatum’s bare backside but not much else made it to the big screen.

Body transformation

Earlier this year, Tatum described the extreme weight loss he endured for the role in Roofman.

The actor shared a slideshow of three images which showed his body transformation as his weight fluctuated more than 60 pounds in order to fulfill requirements for two different projects.

“1st photo is today 205. 2nd photo 235 for a [yet-to-be released] movie called Josephine. Then went to 3rd photo which is 172 for a movie Roofman,” he captioned the snaps on Instagram.

“I’m so grateful for my genetics. Grateful for my chef/nutritionist/witch. Grateful for my trainer. I couldn’t make these big swings in my weight without you guys.”

However, he said he’s done with putting on extra weight for roles.

“It’s too hard on the body and too hard to take off now,” he added, seemingly referencing his middle-age status. “But damn when i look at these pics it’s just wild what the human body and will can do.”

Come on, Channing! Isn’t it time to get get back in a thong for Magic Mike 4?!

A boy can dream …

Roofman is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV, and will start streaming on Paramount+ beginning December 9th.