Zoë Kravitz clearly still thinks very highly of her recent ex Channing Tatum.
In a new conversation with The Batman director Matt Reeves for Variety's Directors on Directors, the actress spoke about why she cast Tatum in her directorial debut, Blink Twice. (They met and eventually fell in love while working together on the film.)
"Channing was the first person I thought of for Slater King [the movie's villainous protagonist], and I don’t know where that came from," Kravitz explained to Reeves.
"I knew that the character needed to be somebody who we think we trust, especially because you don’t believe Naomi [Ackie, who plays Frida] is getting on that plane if it’s someone who is immediately insidious."
But it's Kravitz' next sentence which truly shows the extent of her admiration for Tatum: "I wanted to weaponize his charisma," she said. "We’ve never seen him do something like that." That's true, this is no She's the Man.
Back in 2021, Kravitz opened up to Deadline about why Tatum was her first choice for this movie.
"Chan was my first choice, the one I thought of when I wrote this character," she said at the time. "I just knew from Magic Mike and his live shows, I got the sense he’s a true feminist and I wanted to collaborate with someone who was clearly interested in exploring this subject matter."
Interestingly, the entirety of Tatum and Kravitz' romance ended up being entangled in their Blink Twice collaboration.
First of all, they met on set and eventually started dating, getting engaged in October 2023. Then, they said the sweetest things about each other in relation to Blink Twice, praising each other's work ethics and skills, and then, one source claimed that their relationship "fizzled fast" after they were done working on the movie.
Still, while their romance ultimately didn't work out, they seem poised to remain colleagues in the future: Tatum announced that they're working together on the upcoming movie Alpha Gang just hours before their breakup made headline news. Long may it continue!
