Amanda Bynes Says She “Fought” for Channing Tatum to Star in ‘She’s the Man’

Amanda Bynes is back, baby. On Monday night, the actress legitimately broke the internet with a profile in Paper Magazine, aptly titled “Amanda, Please” (which, I just want to say, was my idea first). Bynes discussed everything from her early days on All That to her premature retirement, but the biggest reveal came when she talked about She’s the Man, the 2006 romantic comedy co-starring Channing Tatum. While Bynes stopped short of taking credit for Tatum’s career, she revealed that she “fought for Channing” to be cast in the film, as she knew Tatum would blow up as soon as women got ahold of him.

By the mid-2000s, Bynes’ time on The Amanda Show, What I Like About You, and All That had made her a bonafide star. In 2006, she starred in She’s the Man, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in which a girl named Viola dresses up as her twin brother and takes his place at boarding school. Tatum plays Viola’s roommate and love interest, Duke, but Bynes revealed to Paper that she had to lobby hard to get him into the film. “I totally fought for Channing [to get cast in] that movie because he wasn’t famous yet. He’d just done a Mountain Dew commercial and I was like, ‘This guy’s a star– every girl will love him!'” she said. “But [the producers] were like, ‘He’s so much older than all of you!’ And I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter! Trust me!'”

Bynes was right. Tatum went on to star in the Step Up films — the first of which came out about five months after She’s the Man — G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, and Dear John over the next four years. Fast-forward to 2018: the Magic Mike star is one of the most well-known actors (and up-and-coming producers) in Hollywood.

She’s the Man may have done great things for Tatum, but it wasn’t as good to Bynes herself. The actress revealed that seeing herself dressed as a boy was “an interesting experience” that ultimately sent her into a downward spiral. “When the movie came out and I saw it, I went into a deep depression for 4-6 months because I didn’t like how I looked when I was a boy,” she said. “It just really put me into a funk.”

You can read the rest of Bynes’ Paper profile here.

Where to stream She's the Man