Why Channing Tatum called from prison for “Roofman” (exclusive)

Channing Tatum spent quite a bit of time on the phone with inmates in the super-large security prisons preparing for his new film.

Roofman (October 10th Theatre) starred 45-year-old Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, who was notoriously found in real life for stealing 45 McDonald’s restaurants, and once secretly lived in the “r” us store and avoided the capture. Manchester, currently sentenced to 40 years in the Central Jail in Raleigh, North Carolina, repeatedly calls Tatum and director Derek Sianfranc, telling stories of him heading to strangers.

“When you can’t call someone, they call you from Super Max prison and you call you for 15 minutes with them, that’s wild,” Tatum tells people at People/EW and Shutterstock Studio at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 6th.

“You basically have to pick up almost anywhere,” the actor producer adds. “I was talking to my daughter’s teacher once, and literally Jeffrey Manchester is on the phone. And you’re just having this 15-minute conversation, and it’s he’s gone, and you don’t know when he’ll call or what time he’ll go.

Roofman follows a six-month stint in Manchester, hiding among us with a toy “R” falling in love with his divorced mother (played by Kirsten Dunst). According to the official summary, “his double life begins to unravel and as his past closes it causes a compelling, suspense game of cats and mice.”

Tatum says when reading the script for Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn, “I really didn’t know what to expect,” allowing a call with Manchester to guide the development of the biographies. “He’s a very charismatic and warm person. He’ll take care of you on this phone.”

Dunst, a 43-year-old smile, cuts out, “Why were you cast?”

Add a star for the magic microphone. “I never met (Manchester), so when he goes out, or at some point, I’m allowed to actually go see him.”

Cyan France, 51, says he spoke with Manchester “about four times a week in four years.” “The more I heard he was, the more I couldn’t believe it was actually real. I told the police who arrested him.

Tatum, who shares his 12-year-old daughter, Everly with his ex-wife Jenna Dewan, took personal inspiration when he played scenes where Inscum Manchester watches his daughter from afar. “I wasn’t acting,” he says of those emotional on-screen moments. “That’s the easiest thing in the world.”

He said, “I remember my daughter (who rode a bike) for the first time and I can’t imagine her riding a bike. I mean, I saw her, I couldn’t go with her and I couldn’t have that moment.

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Roofman, Ben Mendelsohn, Lakes Stanfield, Juno Temple, Uzo Adva and Peter Dinkraj will be in theaters on October 10th.