Channing Tatum Says Zoë Kravitz’s ‘Blink Twice’ Doesn’t Feel Like a Directorial Debut

Channing Tatum is crediting “Blink Twice” for making him get a second wind of inspiration as an actor/producer — all thanks to how writer/director Zoë Kravitz tackled the project.

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Tatum told Vanity Fair that the script for the upcoming feature, which was originally titled “Pussy Island,” was “unlike anything I had ever read,” and that he needed to cut his acting hiatus short to co-lead the feature.

“At that time, I kind of stopped acting for a little while and took, like, four or five years off, and then this thing kind of came into my life and just sort of reinvigorated me to create again,” Tatum said. “It kind of made me fall back in love with movies. And that was just working on it, not even doing the movie, and then getting to go do the movie with your partner is a really special thing.”

Kravitz makes her directorial debut with the film, and she and Tatum met on the project, with Kravitz casting the “Magic Mike” alum because she felt he was a “true feminist,” as Kravitz previously told Deadline .

Tatum in “Blink Twice” plays tech billionaire Slater King, who invites cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) to his private island for the perfect vacation. Little does Frida know, though, that nothing is what it seems in paradise. The psychological thriller, which Tatum also produced, premieres in theaters August 23.

“I can’t wait for you to see it. I can’t wait for the world to see it,” Tatum said. “On so many different levels, it’s something different from what I’ve ever done. Zoë is a real, real director. This is not a movie that feels like someone’s first movie. She’s a beast. I was sort of obsessed with her mind and the way she thought about things. She’s unbelievably witty, but funny. I’ll sort of put people in buckets — ‘this is bad, this is good.’ Some people are very cerebral; they lead with their mind and their logic. Other people lead with their heart and are very intuitive and emotional. And for me, Zoë is just incredibly balanced with both of them. She kind of leads from both places and that is very rare, because she’s got an insanely big brain in that little tiny head of hers. But she’s got a giant heart as well. She’s just obsessed with creating, and I think that’s where we really hit it off.”

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Tatum even teased that he and Kravitz will collaborate more on upcoming projects.

“Yeah, we’ll be making things until we’re old and gray,” Tatum said. “They’ll be our little movie babies.”

As for working with his soon-to-be life partner in Kravitz, Tatum explained how he relies on Kravitz’s artistic opinion in work.

“Everybody always asks me, ‘Did you survive? How did you do it? That was dangerous, you know.’ And I actually say now, if you’re going to get married, if you’re going to have a kid, I implore you to go find the hardest possible project that you can find with your partner and do it, and not just if you survive it, but if you enjoy doing it with them,” Tatum said. “I love to have Zoë’s perspective on things. I almost need it now. I rely on her as just my counterpoint, ‘Am I seeing this correctly? Am I feeling this out right? You know, how do you feel about it?’ She’s just a necessity for me and all of my life now. So getting to make the movie was really special.”

Tatum in the interview also gave an update on other projects in the works, including the long-awaited “23 Jump Street,” and also how he finally brought his take on superhero Gambit to life in “Deadpool & Wolverine.”