Channing Tatum: Stanford rape, Brock Turner addressed in interview

Channing Tatum, star of Magic Mike and self-proclaimed feminist supporter, addressed rape culture and the Brock Turner Stanford case during a chat with Cosmopolitan magazine.

Joanna Coles, the publication’s editor-in-chief, moderated the conversation, which was broadcast via Facebook Live from The Girls’ Lounge in the South of France. During the audience Q&A portion, the actor was asked about being a role model for the next generation of girls and changing the culture with regards to the Stanford rape case.

“That’s a tall question,” he said, “and I don’t know if I have the best…I don’t know if anyone has the best answer for it yet. I think it’s tough. I think the rape culture is a very real thing.”

Addressing Turner specifically, he remarked, “I really think it’s a horrible, horrible idea to let someone off because of possibly what they’re gonna be capable of doing. Because if you start doing that, where do you end? Where does that stop? Where does that line actually quit? I don’t think it’s right. I think he should’ve been punished, personally.”

Turner was convicted in March on three felony counts for sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman, though California judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in prison, citing his age and lack of criminal history. It’s a sentence Tatum said he “couldn’t believe.”

The actor added, “It’s like if you killed someone and got caught red-handed and just because you went to a nice school and you were a good swimmer, you somehow get a lesser sentence. That just doesn’t make any sense.”

Tatum joins the likes of Lena Dunham and Comedy Central’s Nikki Glaser, who’ve spoken out about rape culture in light of the Stanford case. Last year, he also told Aussie site DailyLife.com, “I would love to say I’m a feminist but I don’t study feminism, so I can’t just go, like, ‘Yes, I’m a feminist!’ But I’m very pro-feminism.”