Channing Tatum stars in the upcoming film 'The Eagle'.
Adapted from the 1954 novel “The Eagle of the Ninth” by Rosemary Sutcliff, Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) goes on a far-reaching adventure with an unlikely hero—his slave, Esca (Jamie Bell)—to confront the Pictish tribe and restore honor to the Roman Empire.
Tatum spoke to the CU Independent and gave some insight into his new movie.
CU Independent: What did you do to prepare for this film?
Tatum: A number of things. I was obviously going to have to ride horses and fight with a sword, and I guess I’ve had a little bit of experience with both of those. I grew up in Alabama, so I’ve been around horses pretty much my entire life and I took martial arts when I was younger, so I had some sort of experience, but nowhere near as much as I needed for this film.
As far as preparation for the character, [Director Kevin Macdonald] comes from a documentary world, so he’s obsessed with reality and would inundate us with all kinds of literature like journals of Caesar’s military campaigns, and we’d talk about it in great extent and read as much as we could and then we rehearsed.
CUI: This film is based off the book, “The Eagle of the Ninth” by Rosemary Sutcliff. Have you read it?
Tatum: Kevin didn’t want us to read the book. They changed it pretty significantly.
CUI: Was there anything that particularly interested you in taking this role as opposed to the more modern roles you’ve had?
Tatum: As an actor, I really want to do as many different things as I can because I think it helps you stretch and grow. Being a young actor and not having a lot of experience when I started, I’ve had to do a lot of my learning on set.
My two favorite movies are “Braveheart” and “Gladiator,” they’re sort of my “Star Wars,” in a way. I’ve always dreamed of doing something in this world and realm. The themes of honor and duty and a responsibility to one’s country have always been themes I’ve enjoyed. I wanted to step out and see if I could do some kind of period drama.
CUI: What were some of the challenges of filming on location in Hungary and Scotland?
Tatum: Hungary was fairly simple. We were there for about five weeks and shot pretty much the whole first part of the movie with the fort and Uncle Aquila’s villa—that rhymed! After that we went to Scotland and everything just got infinitely harder. Our crew got smaller and we were in the Highlands. It’s colder and more wet than I could ever, ever try to explain to you.
CUI: Did you find yourself taking inspiration from any historical figures? Did you base the character Marcus Aquila off anyone else?
Tatum: We talked a great deal about Marcus in general. I definitely took him from the script, I didn’t steal him from any sort of historical book or anything. For the most part we created him totally out of the ether and gave him morals and values that he could really take hold of and fight for.
CUI: What about the character Marcus Aquila did you find relatable?
Tatum: I talked to Kevin a lot, and one of the things he was very passionate about was that he kind of wanted to make a statement with this movie. He wanted all the Romans to be American, and there were a few different reasons for that. In Stanley Kubrick’s film, “Spartacus,” he made all of the Romans English and all the slaves American. I think this was Kevin’s way to flip that stigmatism on its head and try to do something different, which is always good. I think he was trying to make a political statement because America is occupying a country at the moment and is in war and we are such a melting pot of culture and creed and religion that it is very much like Rome, back in the day. They would go into all these different countries and sort of conquer them, in a way. But I’m definitely proud to be an American and I’m proud of [Americans’] faults as much as their strengths, and I will live and die for them, for sure.
“The Eagle” opens in the U.S. on Friday.
Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Sebastian Murdock at Sebastian.murdock@colorado.edu.
