Ricky Martin Recalls Casting An Unknown Channing Tatum In Grammy-Winning Video
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Ricky Martin still remembers casting a fresh-faced Channing Tatum over two decades ago.
The Puerto Rican pop star conquered the Latin pop craze at the turn of the millennium, but nobody who watched his 2000 music video for “She Bangs” knew then that they’d caught a glimpse of a future A-lister in a minor role.
“I just told the people from the production of the video ‘Just go out scouting and invite everybody to come to the Bahamas’ ... and that’s what happened, and there he was,” Martin explained on Thursday’s broadcast of “Watch What Happens Live,” referring to Tatum.
When asked if he still keeps in touch with the “Magic Mike” actor, Martin said that he does “through the internet,” where Tatum “said thank you for the first opportunity” of his career. In the same year as “She Bangs,” Tatum also appeared in ads for Pepsi and Mountain Dew.
He has since become a megastar, working with acclaimed directors like Michael Mann, Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino. Tatum, who is dating fellow actor Zoë Kravitz — and seems to share a special bond with her father — reflected on “She Bangs” in 2022.
“My very first job ever was a Ricky Martin video,” he said to a surprised Sandra Bullock, his “Lost City” co-star, in a Wired video that year. “I was in ‘She Bangs.’ … I was a bartender with face paint and a mohawk.”
Bullock was clearly impressed by the revelation.
“OK, I didn’t know that,” she told him. “I’m kind of fan-girling a little bit.”
Martin had already crossed over into the English market with “Livin’ La Vida Loca” in the late 1990s, but the “She Bangs” video — which appears to show Tatum flipping a cocktail shaker at the 1:30 mark — further established him as a pop icon.
It not only became a cultural phenomenon and made “American Idol” contestant William Hung a sensation, but was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammys — and won Martin a Latin Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
