Channing Tatum shares intimate Roofman polaroids — including one Kirsten Dunst says she was 'not ...

&34;I was ready to go home,&34; Dunst says of the behindthescenes photo, &34;but I love everybody there.&34; Channing Tatum shares intimate Roofman polaroids —

"I was ready to go home," Dunst says of the behind-the-scenes photo, "but I love everybody there."

Channing Tatum shares intimate *Roofman *polaroids — including one Kirsten Dunst says she was 'not in the mood' for

"I was ready to go home," Dunst says of the behind-the-scenes photo, "but I love everybody there."

By Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff is a writer at with over a decade of experience covering all facets of the entertainment industry. After graduating with honors from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook 'em, Horns!), Lauren wrote about film, television, awards season, music, and more for the likes of The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood, Us Weekly, Awards Circuit, and others before landing at EW in May 2019.

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September 4, 2025 12:00 p.m. ET

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Channing Tatum behind the scenes of 'Roofman'. Credit:

Channing Tatum has been making movies for 20 years, but he still finds himself enchanted by the process. So much so, that he's started diligently taking polaroids on his film sets to remind him of "the journey." His latest, the Derek Cianfrance-directed film, *Roofman*, was no different.

Based on a true story, Tatum stars in the film as Jeffrey Manchester, a convicted robber dubbed "Roofman" in the press for his tendency to access properties by drilling through the roof. The movie takes place over six months in 2004 when, after a daring escape from jail, he holes up in a North Carolina Toys "R" Us. Living under the alias John Zorn, he integrates into the surrounding community, and ends up falling for Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), a divorced mom and Toys "R" Us employee, who, of course, has no idea he's living at the store.

"It was exhausting and soul-wrenching, but it was such a beautiful experience," Tatum says of the shoot. "I would do it all over again a hundred times."****Now, ahead of the film's release on Oct. 10, Tatum is revisiting some memorable moments from set. "I always take Polaroids, usually on these movie sets or take pictures along the way," he tells * *for our Fall Movie Preview. "Me and my assistant Eve [Brigham], who works in my company as well as a producer, loves taking photos, and we always pop off stuff along the way and just remind ourselves about the journey."**

Speaking of the, uh, *unique *look he's sporting in the photo at the top of this post, Tatum says, "The wig is a disguise that Jeff uses at a certain point in the film, and it just looks really strange and very of a certain time, and it's good. I don't know, I really love that look — the weird little goatee."

EW also caught up with Dunst to get her recollections from set. Seeing the pictures again, she says, "You know what? I do feel joy when I think about it because I know that what we were all trying to do was really authentic and from a good place. I feel like we accomplished what Derek set out to do, and that doesn't happen all the time. So I feel really proud."

See more behind-the-scenes moments below.

Why so serious?

Channing Tatum behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

"I was just standing on my mark for the camera to get focused and to dial in the light and whatnot. This wasn't in a live scene, but this is a scene from the movie," Tatum explains. "This is a moment where I'm at my daughter's birthday and I'm giving her a bicycle that she's always wanted, that I couldn't give her the year before.

"And basically, while I'm giving her this bike, I'm raising the garage, and the police have pulled up outside the house and are asking for Jeffrey Manchester, which is me, and that is where I see them for the very first time."

Naturally, because this isn't a live scene, Tatum isn't technically acting, but ironically, it looks like he is. "I think I'm trying in the scene that *isn't* this photo, to actually look like there's nothing wrong, but I think in this photo it looks like there's something very, *very* wrong," he says, laughing at the serious look on his face.**

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Monkey business

Alex Orlovsky, Lynette Howell Taylor, Jamie Patricof, Derek Cianfrance, Channing Tatum, Lily Collias, Kennedy Moyer, Kirsten Dunst, Jimmy O. Yang, and Duncan Montgomery behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

"This was towards the end of the movie," Tatum says. "I think we were wrapping people out after this. And this was kind of a big day — I think this was probably one of the last days that we were all going to be on set together."

To set the scene: Jeff goes to buy a used car, which he refers to as a "beater," because he's trying to teach Leigh's oldest daughter how to drive, and, naturally, this means she's going to need something "that you're not afraid to crash."

"And so we go to get a beater and we go to this crazy used car lot, and this photo was just at the end of the day, and we're about to start wrapping characters, and we all wanted to have a big photo together."

Well, not everyone. "I just felt like, personally, I was not in the mood," Dunst says, laughing. "I was ready to go home, and just not in the mood to take a group picture. So that's *my* vibe, but I love everybody there."**

A laughing matter

Uzo Aduba, Ben Mendelsohn, Derek Cianfrance, Kirsten Dunst, Kennedy Moyer, Channing Tatum, Lily Collias behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

This photo is a Cianfrance special, Tatum says. "When Jeff was living inside the Toys 'R' Us, he would go to this church, and we actually shot in the actual church that Jeff went to — so this is all a real location that Jeff, the real Jeff, actually spent time at," he explains. "In this photo, Derek loves to do this thing where we all take a serious photo and then we all scream or laugh like we've never laughed before — the loudest, most obnoxious laughs — so everybody throws their head back and just laughs. So we always get two photos like that."

When EW mentions that, thanks to the crosses in the background, it almost looks like they're singing gospel songs, Tatum jokes, "I wish we were singing. Actually, I don't think *anybody* wishes I was singing — I look like I'm sneezing or something. Kirsten definitely looks like she could be singing operatic sort of tunes."

Dunst, who points out that the idea behind the photos was actually inspired by movie posters for John Cassavetes' films, laughs at this notion. "On Cassavetes posters, a lot of the time they're like laughing or there's a moment of real life that's happening, and that's the inspo for this," she explains. "I'm definitely *not* singing because that's not my personality to do that. It's probably a big old laugh."**

A family affair

Juno Temple, Lakeith Stanfield, and Channing Tatum behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

"I would show up if either one of these two humans ever needed anything," Tatum says of Juno Temple and LaKeith Stanfield. "I don't care what it was, I would absolutely show up."

In this photo, the trio was in between takes, goofing off in the "crazy hotel in the middle of North Carolina" where they were filming. "We didn't really have trailers on the movie, we just sort of all hung out on set," he says. "So this was us just in between takes and just hanging out, because that's one thing that Derek does really well, is that he creates an environment that you want to hang out. You want to be around each other and vibe out and not just retreat back to your trailer and be alone — this is definitely a family affair of making a movie."**

Is this a Christmas movie?

Lily Collias and Channing Tatum behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

Throughout the movie, Leigh's oldest daughter is suspicious of Jeff. ("He's just a little too extra all the time — he just tries a little too hard — and I very much relate to him as a human in this regard," Tatum says.) By this point, though, he's won her over. They shot several different versions of this scene, which allowed Tatum to experience the fun of "when you get the reins taken off of you as an actor."

"Even in this scene, he was like, 'I want you to be Jerry Lewis,'" Tatum says of Cianfrance's notes. "And I'm like, 'Jerry Lewis, alright, I'm going to do this as Jerry Lewis.' And then he's like, 'All right, I want you to be like, do you remember a kid in your high school that was just, he couldn't be cool if he tried?' He is an obsessive director about performance, and, God, I've learned so much on this movie."

When EW points out that this is actually the second picture to feature some Christmas iconography, Tatum says, "Yeah, we kept joking the whole movie that this was a Christmas movie. And look, there is Christmas in the movie, so we're not lying. But it's definitely not your average Christmas movie, that's for sure."

So, is *Roofman* the new *Diehard*, then? "Yeah," Tatum jokes. "Is it a Christmas movie or is it not a Christmas movie?"**

Like a kid in a toy store

Channing Tatum behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

"I mean, this is just classic, you can't leave me alone in a Toys 'R' Us with a bunch of toys," Tatum says as soon as he sees this shot. "The amount of behind-the-scenes set photography that we have of me playing with toys or being stupid with toys is endless. There's me with Geoffrey the giraffe from Toys 'R' Us. There's me with teddy bears, there's me with G.I. Joes, there's me with X-Men and Wolverines, and doing terrible things to Deadpool's figurine. And there's all kinds of fun to be had when you get left alone in a toy store."

And Tatum wasn't the only one getting nostalgic in their recreation of the bygone toy retailer. "You should see everybody that came to set. I wish we would've kept the set so that people could just come to a Toys 'R' Us again and know what it feels like to walk into a toy store again. I mean, grown men were emotional walking into that place. It was crazy. It's like walking right into a time capsule that takes you right back to the '90s and 2000s."**

And... scene

Channing Tatum, Derek Cianfrance, and Kirsten Dunst behind the scenes of 'Roofman'.

These are the faces of three people who are very satisfied after nailing an "unbelievably emotional scene." In it, Jeff and Leigh meet up in prison, and haven't seen each other in quite some time. To prepare, Dunst and Tatum also didn't see each other at all on the day.

"I think we were all very, very nervous for the scene, and Derek set an environment up for us to be able to really, I think, bring forth all that anxiety, all that fear, and what we've been leading up to for the whole movie, really, in a way," Tatum explains. "And I think this was Kirsten's last scene in the movie, and the last time that we saw her as well, [filming] the movie. So it was all just a very emotional sort of climax to a very exhausting but well-worth-it movie to do."

Dunst agrees. "Oh, that's definitely like we effing did it," she says when she sees the photo. "We finished the last scene of the movie. I was wrapped. We did it in two takes, and it just felt like we kind of looked like the Round Table of King Arthur. That's that picture. We're done. I'm so relieved. I'm so happy. And I've been sobbing too because of the scene, so I look happily worn out. But we did it. We gave it our all."**

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