Channing Tatum is honouring Stephen “tWitch” Boss three years after the dancer’s death, admitting that the late performer is someone he can call his man crush.
The Step Up star, 45, made the admission in an emotional tribute at the Dance Hall of Fame Ceremony in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry,” Tatum began in his tribute to the Magic Mike XXL star.
“To say it’s an honour to talk about that man is an understatement. He was one of the most brilliant, bright people. He loved so big, and that’s why he [shone] the way he did.”
Tatum recalled first discovering Boss on So You Think You Can Dance in 2008, when Boss competed on Season 4.
“My brain couldn’t wrap around how this giant, beautiful man was moving like that, and then he had to be funny, too,” he said. “Then he smiles, and you fall in love with him. That’s tWitch.”
“He made you want to be better. He accepted you exactly where you were.”
Tatum even admitted to having a “man crush” on Boss, explaining that it was their shared Alabama roots that made him feel connected to the late dancer. “It was an honour to know him, to call him a friend. I will see him again.”
Boss, who died by suicide in 2022 at 40, rose to fame on SYTYCD and later became a fixture on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
