Channing Tatum Defends Gambit Accent in ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’

Channing Tatum finally got the chance to play the superhero Gambit in “Deadpool & Wolverine” after he spent years trying and failing to develop a Gambit film during Fox’s Marvel era. The role is so sacred to him that he recently said in a Vanity Fair video interview that he was too scared to ask to take the Gambit costume home with him after filming wrapped. Tatum always takes home a outfit from set, but not Gambit’s.

“I was too scared to ask,” Tatum said. “And usually, I steal the very last outfit that I’m in, in every movie, and I was too scared to do it on this one.”

Gambit’s thick Cajun accent is a running joke in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool asking at one point: “Who’s your dialect coach? The Minions?” Tatum told Vanity Fair that criticism of the accent is not exactly fair as it was all intentional.

“There was very little improv. The Cajun dialect is a very particular one,” Tatum separately told Access Hollywood. “I grew up in Mississippi and my dad is from New Orleans. So it’s one of those things that I grew up around it, but I’ve never done it. There are certain little isms that are very Cajun-y, but we actually intended it to be somewhat unintelligible. That was sort of the joke.”

“[Ryan would] come up to be and say, ‘I don’t want to know anything that you’re saying on this [take],’ so I just dialed it all the way up,” Tatum added. “And then other ones he’s like, ‘All right, I’ve got to understand what you’re saying now.’”

After “Deadpool & Wolverine” broke records at the box office during its opening weekend, Tatum took to social media to share an emotional statement on finally getting the chance to play Gambit on the big screen.

“I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But [Reynolds] fought for me and Gambit,” he wrote. “I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy…I’m so grateful to be in this movie. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theater.”

In a later interview with Variety, Tatum admitted that he is still interested in making that standalone Gambit movie, adding: “I’ve been saying I want it for the last 10 years. It’s in Bob Iger and Kevin Feige’s hands. I pray to God.”

Watch Tatum’s full interview with Vanity Fair in the video below. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters nationwide.