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Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst

Yong Chavez

ABS-CBN News North America

<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GXecSGmQDEI?si=3-07AoS6Tdq_XTH4&amp;start=64" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>What makes a person worth loving?Before filmmaker Derek Cianfrance even turned &quot;Roofman&quot; into a movie, the story already had everything the director finds fascinating: contradictions, heartbreak, and impossible grace. But for stars Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, stepping into the lives of Jeffrey and Leigh became something deeply personal. They play two real people bound by love, poor choices, and forgiveness.When asked what they’ve done out of the ordinary to chase what they wanted, Dunst smiled knowingly. “I feel like the choices you make as an actor inform things, and sometimes you take bigger risks than other times.”For Tatum, his entire career began as one big risk. “I think even trying to act before I even really knew how to act was probably pretty crazy,” he said, laughing. “I didn’t have any clue what I was doing, and then I was just going in and trying to read a scene, and I got lucky enough to get parts, and then kind of learned how to act on the job,” he says before continuing with his charming cackle. “Maybe other people learn first how.”That leap of faith that is messy, untrained, and sincere all at once isn’t too far from Jeff’s own misguided determination in &quot;Roofman.&quot; The movie is based on the true story of Jeffrey Manchester, a US Army veteran and struggling father who infamously robbed fast food restaurants in the late 1990s by cutting holes in their roofs. After escaping prison in 2004, he secretly lived inside a toy store for months where he accidentally met Leigh, played by Kirsten Dunst.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760499090755roofman-RM_23065R_rgb.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst in &#x27;Roofman.&#x27; Paramount Pictures </div><div>&#x27;He thought love meant buying toys&#x27;</div>Playing Jeff forced Tatum to think about the ways people confuse love with proving their worth. “I related very much to Jeff’s needs and wants,” he said. “His dream was to have a family and someone that really loved him unconditionally. I don’t think he even knew what the unconditional part was. And I think he learned that after all this whole story unfolds. I think he thought that the only thing he had to offer in the way of loving somebody was buying them toys or being able to afford a house or give them a good life. And that wasn’t what all he had to offer. It was him and his time and someone to really appreciate that and value that. And I really wish that he would have met Leigh earlier in life, because I do believe he might not have ended up where he ended up.”When Tatum finally spoke with the real Jeffrey Manchester, he expected someone hardened by years behind bars. “I had no idea who I was going to meet on the other end of that phone,” he said. “Someone that’s been incarcerated that long, has been through all this, spent nine years in solitary confinement, it could have been a very, very different person than what’s in this movie. And he was just so warm and kind and just open and funny and optimistic. And I just found myself really just wanting to be his friend.”He paused, then added, “I don’t know if maybe that’s his magic, but having gone through everything that he’s gone through and still have that vibe, that sort of energy — it’s really a feat of the mind. I don’t know how he does it.”For Kirsten Dunst, &quot;Roofman&quot; was a love story and a study in resilience. “I just was so impressed by the way [Leigh] dealt with this in her life,” she said. “Something that could have hardened her, really just made her more loving. And the way she talks about Jeff, and she has so much grace towards the situation. She really handled it in just such a beautiful, human way. I’m very impressed by her spirituality and love.”Dunst and Tatum didn’t meet until cameras were rolling, a choice made by Cianfrance to preserve authenticity. But for Dunst, the instant they locked eyes, something clicked. “Because we didn’t see each other until that first time, I immediately felt when I looked into Channing’s eyes that he met me and we were gonna do this together in a great way,” she recalled. “I just felt safe and we were both pretty goofy and vulnerable and down to improvise.”<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760499132496roofman-RM_16788R2_rgb.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"/>Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst in &#x27;Roofman.&#x27; Paramount Pictures </div><div>Derek Cianfrance on casting, contradictions, and compassion</div>Director Derek Cianfrance, who has made a career out of exploring flawed humanity (&quot;Blue Valentine,&quot; &quot;The Place Beyond the Pines&quot;), said the story resonated with him because of its moral tension. “If he had less humanity, he would have been a better criminal,” he said. “It was his humanity that made him a terrible criminal.”Cianfrance spent years speaking with Manchester, Leigh, and Pastor Ron who became Jeff’s unexpected friend. They are the people who lived the story firsthand. “I expected both of them to be angry with Jeff,” he said. “But when I talked to both of them, they talked about Jeff as being this unicorn that appeared in their life. Leigh said he was the greatest adventure of her life, and that she didn’t regret a thing.”That perspective shaped how he told the story. “I wanted to follow her lead and Pastor Ron’s lead and find the heart of Jeff through them,” he said.Cianfrance also knew exactly who he wanted to bring Jeff and Leigh to life. “Channing has always been one of my favorite actors,” he said. “He has this dancer’s body, like Gene Kelly, but he had a boxer&#x27;s face and looked like Marlon Brando, and I just thought he was an image of this beautiful, wounded masculinity.”The director spent six hours walking with Tatum in a Brooklyn park. “I didn’t mention the movie to him at all. I just got to know him as a man. I learned that the most important person in his life was his daughter, and I thought that was important for Jeff.”When it came to Leigh, the choice was just as instinctive. “I think Kirsten’s just our finest actress,” he said. “It’s so rare to have someone that grew up in the spotlight, a child actor that is so normal and well-adjusted and just salt of the earth. When I told Channing that it was going to be Kirsten, he got very nervous, because he knows that she’s an assassin.”He recalled their first day of meeting on set. “Right before Channing came into the Red Lobster, I remember he told me, ‘I hope she likes me,’ and I know half of that was Channing hoping Kirsten liked him, and half of that was Jeff hoping Leigh liked him. And that was kind of the perfect moment for me.”&quot;Roofman,&quot; to him, is less about crime than it is about the people left to live with its consequences. “Jeff traumatized a lot of people by his actions,“ Cianfrance concedes. “But his heart was equal to that, and so was the forgiveness and the grace that the people in his life met him with.”That balance between accountability and empathy is what Tatum and Dunst bring to the screen. It’s what makes &quot;Roofman&quot; not just a story about what one man did, but about the complicated and stubborn hope that even after the aftermath of our worst decisions, maybe there’s still something left of us worth loving.

Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst talk about the risks, rewards, and imperfect timing of love in their new film 'Roofman.'

Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst talk about the risks, rewards, and imperfect timing of love in their new film ' Roofman .'

Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst on taking risks and love in 'Roofman'

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Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst on taking risks and love in 'Roofman'

Yong Chavez,

ABS-CBN News North America

Published Oct 15, 2025 05:04 PM PHT

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Channing Tatum

Kirsten Dunst

Roofman

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