Gemma Chan Opens Up About Channing Tatum Movie ‘Josephine’

Gemma Chan and Channing Tatum are starring in a new movie called Josephine, and it seems like a doozy. Chan, who recently spoke with MovieWeb about her hypnotic noir mystery The Actor, opened up about the filmmaking experience behind Josephine. “I’m not actually sure what I’m allowed to say about it. We have finished filming it. We filmed it in San Francisco. It was such an incredible experience,” said Chan, who added:

“Beth de Araújo, the director, this is loosely based off something that happened in her childhood, so we were all aware of our responsibility to doing justice to something that was a story that’s very personal to her and her family. Channing was incredible. We had an amazing young girl called Mason who plays Josephine. I’m really excited. I haven’t seen the film yet, I think they’re still just finishing up the edit. So I’m excited to hopefully get to see it soon, and hopefully you guys will get to see it too.”

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure what we were making at first,” admitted Chan with a laugh. “It’s a drama, but her first film is a thriller, and there are definitely thriller elements in it as well.” That first film of de Araújo’s is the excellent Soft & Quiet, so movie lovers and fans of Chan should get excited about Josephine.

The True Story Behind ‘Josephine’

Josephine producer David Kaplan told SFGATE, “It is a story of a family dealing with a personal trauma after seeing something unexpected and horrifying in Golden Gate Park.” De Araujo has been trying to get the film made for about a decade, and in 2019, she recounted the true story behind the film at one of the storytelling events held by The Moth. As SFGATE reports: “When she was 8 years old, de Araujo and her father drove to a remote part of the park to play baseball. When her father turned off the car, they heard screams for help. ‘It’s the kind of sound that crawls up your skin and bounces off of every surface around you,’ de Araujo said on The Moth.” They continue:

“Her father chased off the assailant, leaving de Araujo alone in the car. Eventually, she got scared, went looking for her father and came face to face with a sobbing woman. When she and her father got home, they didn’t discuss what had transpired. De Araujo recalled becoming “hypervigilant” in the ensuing months, then years, requiring friends to stand outside the bathroom, and being unable to sleep without her father in the house. De Araujo told SFGATE that only one scene from Josephine mirrors this childhood memory, and that the rest of the story is almost completely different.”

In the meantime, Chan stars opposite André Holland in the phenomenal avant-garde noir mystery, The Actor, directed by ‘Anomalisa’ filmmaker Duke Johnson. It’s a mesmerizing, truly unique film, and is in theaters now from NEON.