Channing Tatum Can't Escape Stripper Past

Wonderwall, Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 10:03am (PST)

Poor Channing Tatum. Whenever he embarks on a promotional blitz for a new film, he ends up talking about his humble beginnings in a dollar bill-stuffed G-string.

The beefy actor is currently out stumping for the sword-and-sandal flick "The Eagle," and once again, his long-ago tour of duty in a Tampa strip club as an exotic dancer named Chan Crawford has come back to haunt him.

"Yeah, yeah, [I] definitely was," he tells CNN of his bumping-and-grinding days. "[I] had a crazy life in Florida, man. I've lived a lot of different lives, and I'm not ashamed of 'em."

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But Tatum, who tied the knot with Jenna Dewan in 2009, doesn't recommend exotic dancing as a career path to fame and fortune.

"Would I suggest 'em to people? Probably not," he says. "But it was just one of those things. I've had a bunch of different, incredible experiences that I might have never really escaped, and I'm pretty happy I got nine lives. Hopefully, I've got a couple more in the pocket."

This time last year, while Channing was making the rounds for the three-Kleenex weeper "Dear John," he treated Ellen DeGeneres to a few of his old moves (see it here).

"Look, I'm not proud of it," he said of his past, "but I'm not ashamed of it."