Channing Tatum and Peter Dinklage’s first on-screen meeting in Roofman happened during a nude shower scene, the film’s director Derek Cianfrance said while reflecting on production this week. He explained that he intentionally kept the actors apart until cameras rolled to capture Dinklage’s genuine surprise, adding that Tatum performed the sequence “full monty.” The recollection follows an initial report highlighting the moment and arrives as the movie expands its festival and pre-release promotion.
Cianfrance described a fast, 35-day shoot and credited Dinklage’s timing with shaping the scene’s tone—a chaotic encounter in which a startled fugitive sprints through a darkened store after being discovered mid-rinse. Tatum previously said the logistics of staging a nude action beat were tricky, joking that he worried the crew was “going to see everything,” a remark made when the first trailer arrived earlier this summer.
Roofman premiered in Toronto on September 6 and is slated to open in U.S. theaters on October 10. Studio materials underline the stranger-than-fiction plot: Tatum plays Jeffrey “Roofman” Manchester, a former Army reservist who robbed dozens of fast-food restaurants and later hid inside a Toys “R” Us; Dinklage appears as a store manager drawn into the pursuit. The cast also includes Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Uzo Aduba, and others.
In interviews around a New York screening on September 8, Cianfrance said he spoke with Manchester repeatedly over several years while researching the script, and he reiterated that Tatum and Dinklage’s first take together was the shower sequence by design. People connected to the production have framed the moment as emblematic of the film’s balance of tension and screwball elements, with the director noting there was “nothing to hide behind” in how the scene was staged. Manchester, who authorities say robbed 45 McDonald’s restaurants and evaded capture for months inside the toy store, is serving a 40-year sentence in North Carolina.
