Channing Tatum is remembering his late “Magic Mike XXL” co-star Stephen âtWitchâ Boss three years after his tragic passing. The actor gave a heartfelt speech honoring his legacy at the Dance Hall of Fame Ceremony in Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 3 .
Tatum Delivers an Emotional Speech
Getty“I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry,” Tatum began his speech. “I do this because tWitch made me laugh all the time. But to say that it is an honor to sit up here and talk about that man is an understatement to say the least. I sat for a while, and I was like, ‘What am I going to tell them?’ Because lots of people here might’ve known tWitch much longer or more intimate than I did. I got to work with him, and I got to work with him for a good amount of time.”
“As I was just sitting here watching that video and you just see his face and it all, you really need to see,” Tatum continued. “He just was one of the most brilliant, bright [people]. He just loved so big. He just loves so big and that’s why he just shines so much.”
“My brain just couldn’t wrap itself around how this giant, big, beautiful man was moving the way he was,” Tatum said, referring to seeing Boss for the first time on the show ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’
“I was a bigger guy, and I couldn’t fathom moving like that, and then he had to go and open his stupid mouth and be funny as well. That pissed me off. I was like, ‘Hold on a second.’ And then he smiles at you and then you fall in love with him, and then that’s just tWitch.”
“He made all of us fall in love with him and he rose everyone in the room. He came in the room just, I don’t know, he just filled it up. He filled it up. He made you want to be better at anything that you wanted to be. He accepted you for who you were, who you wanted to be or wherever you were going. He wanted to help and he wanted to be there.”
“I guess a man crush,” Tatum joked when describing how difficult it was to put Boss’ presence into words. “Maybe it was because we’re both from Alabama and I just felt some sort of kinship to him. Roll Tide, by the way. I’m sure he yelled it back and is laughing at me right now. It was an honor to know him. It was an honor to call him a friend, and I will see him again.”
The Legacy Boss Leaves Behind After His Passing
According to PEOPLE, Boss first rose to fame in the early 2000s as a contestant on MTV’s “The Wade Robson Project” before becoming a runner-up on “Star Search.” In 2008, he competed on “SYTYCD,” ending season 4 as a runner-up.
He later returned to as an all-star dancer and eventually became a recurring judge when the show returned in 2022. This is where he met his wife Allison Holker Boss, whom he shares three children with, Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.
After starring in “Magic Mike XXL,” he joined “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” as a guest DJ, and he ended up becoming a co-executive producer on the series.
Boss died of suicide at the age of 40 in December 2022.
The post Channing Tatum Admits He Had a ‘Man Crush’ on His Late ‘Magic Mike’ Co-Star in Touching Tribute appeared first on EntertainmentNow.