CHANNING TATUM:

Are you a hopeless romantic yourself?
I hate that question, because yeah, I would like to say I’m a romantic. I don’t personally think it’s that hard to be that thoughtful. Caring for somebody and showing them that you love them is just another outlet for creativity for me. I like to draw and write little, tiny stories, or even just ‘I love you’ and hide it in her purse or under the toilet seat so when she gets up before you she sees it. It’s whatever. Because I’m a practical joker, it’s fun for me.

What advice do you have for a great Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day, I would always say misleading is the best. Say you’re going to dinner, like something really boring – not boring, but normal. Look, I love sitting and having dinner. I probably will be doing that on Valentine’s Day because it’s the day this comes out, and we’ll be working and whatnot. But mislead. That’s what I always say. Mislead. Say we’re doing that, and then go and, I don’t know, go skydiving. Do something that’s a little shocking, that you’ll remember. Don’t do something that you’ve already done.

Any memorable Valentine’s Days for you?
I don’t know any memorable ones as far as great dates because I think I’ve had two really bad days on Valentine’s Day. I had two long-term girlfriends – for almost exactly the same amount of time, it was like three and a half years each – and on Valentine’s Day on both of them we broke up. But in hindsight it was a really honest thing because I think that right around that time you should be figuring out if this is who you want to be with. Is this who you want to raise children with? Is this something that you see going on and getting to the next stage, whatever that next stage is? And I think that when Valentine’s Day comes around, you can’t get away from it. It makes you think of it, and you can’t be dishonest on that day. And I think that in both of those relationships, we had great, great communication and real friendship, and I think it was just one of those, ‘Yeah, let’s try something different,’ you know? And, ‘I love you, but…’ And it was hard because it wasn’t like a bad breakup. It never was like, ‘You cheated on me!’ It was always just like, ‘I think we’re doing different things now.’ And it was sad, it was really sad. But I think those are the ones that I remember the most.

You weren’t skydiving at the time, were you?
No, no. (laughs) Like, [yelling over his shoulder] ‘You know what, this isn’t working for me!’