Channing Tatum says he went to dark places to play his “psychopathic” character in Zoë Kravitz’s new thriller Blink Twice

Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut Blink Twice is a tense thriller dissecting wealth, lust, and power. For one of its stars, Channing Tatum, it also meant leaning into some dark places to create his performance as a billionaire tech mogul.

His character, Slater King, is the linchpin of Kravitz’s story, which she co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum, as it follows him, and his group of followers, jetting off to a privately owned island paradise. However, for one islandgoer, Frida (Naomi Ackie), things take a turn that leads her to start questioning her own reality. You can see a sneak peek of the pair in our exclusive image below.

(Image credit: Carlos Somonte/Warner Bros/Amazon MGM Studios)

“It’s the first time I’ve ever played anyone [like this],” Tatum tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday, July 19, which features Alien: Romulus on the cover. “Every character I play, I usually have some sort of love for or a connection to.” Yet, with King, that approach was out of reach, he adds. “I don’t think I’ll ever tell anybody what I had to create inside my head to play this person,” Tatum continues. “He’s a psychopath.”

For Kravitz, the drama of the film is intensified by its characters being trapped in an unfamiliar place. “It was really more about power dynamics,” she adds to Total Film. “And trying to create a situation where the characters were isolated. That, in my mind, is the scariest situation you could be in – whether you’re trapped in the back of a car, in a closet, or in a dark room at a party. À la Lord of the Flies, I was trying to find an environment where the characters had to stay and deal with the crumbling of the power dynamics.”

Pre-order the Alien: Romulus issue of Total Film

Blink Twice opens in cinemas on August 23. For more from Kravitz, Tatum, and Ackie, read our full feature in the new issue, which is out on shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, July 19.

Check out the covers below:

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios/Disney)

Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy, or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it’s in stores, and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers. 

(Image credit: Total Film/20th Century Studios/Disney/Marvel Studios/Warner Bros/Prime Video/Universal)