During a recent episode of Hot Ones, Channing Tatum opened up about a painful memory from the set of 'Foxcatcher,' one that left him with lasting effects and came courtesy of Mark Ruffalo.
In the 2014 biographical drama, Tatum and Ruffalo portrayed Olympic wrestlers and brothers Mark and David Schultz. While the two actors developed a close friendship, one intense scene led to an accident that Tatum won’t soon forget.
Ruffalo, now 57, has also shared the story publicly. During his own Hot Ones appearance in 2023, while promoting 'Poor Things,' he recalled the incident with a mix of regret and humor.
"[Channing] did ask me to slap the s--t out of him, and it was easy to do because he’d beaten the s--t out of me so many times,” Ruffalo joked at the time. “It was like four months of learning how to wrestle together. He like has 30 pounds on me, so when it came time to smack the s--t out of him, I was like, ‘Came from Alabama.’”
Tatum, who was on the show ahead of the release of 'The Roofman,' described the moment bluntly. “Mark didn't mean to f------ pop my eardrum, he just slapped me,” he told host Sean Evans. “I was like, ‘You got to slap me. Like, I don't want to just get like, you know — slap the s--- out of me. ... Just like really do it so we can move on.’”
The hit didn’t just rupture his eardrum, Ruffalo also cut his ear in the process. “It’s still not the same,” Tatum admitted. “But I love that it’s from Mark, because he’s like the most beautiful human you could ever meet in the world.”
Tatum first talked about the eardrum injury back in 2014 when the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where Miller took home the prize for Best Director. “All of a sudden it’s just making a screeching noise. I can’t hear anything,” Tatum said at the time. “Eardrums heal, so I’m fine.”
That wasn’t the only physical toll the actor endured while making the film. “I’m pretty sure I broke my hand in the movie in the training,” he told reporters at Cannes. “You’re just throwing bodies around and you get caught in different angles.”
While promoting 'Roofman,' Tatum also shared how he copes with the emotional challenges that come with his career. “I deal with massive anxiety and all you can do is sort of face things and however you face them — whatever that metaphorical punch in the face is to that thing that you're afraid of is — just do it,” he said. “No matter if you got to head butt it, punch it. Whatever. Just just get it on.”