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Channing Tatum is honoring his late friend, Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss,” three years after his suicide at age 40 in 2022.
The “Roofman” star, 45, attended the Dance Hall of Fame’s inaugural ceremony on Wednesday at the Gloria Kaufmann Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles.
During the event, Boss was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kenny Ortega, Misty Copeland, the late Gene Kelly, the late Bob Fosse, the late Alvin Ailey, and the late Jerome Robbins.
Tatum gave a heartfelt speech in his “Magic Mike” co-star’s honor.
“I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry,” the actor said before becoming emotional. “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,” added Tatum. “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.”
The “Step Up” actor first caught wind of Boss while he was on “So You Think You Can Dance.” It wasn’t until 2015’s “Magic Mike XXL” that the two worked together.
“My brain just couldn’t wrap itself around how this giant, big, beautiful man was moving the way he was,” Tatum continued. “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.”
The dancer gushed that Boss “made all of us fall in love with him,” noting that “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.”
Tatum also took a moment to gush over the friendship they shared.
“I guess a man crush,” he teased. “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.”
Boss first appeared on the MTV game show “Wade Robson Project” in the early aughts before landing as a runner up on “Star Search” in 2003.
In 2008, he placed as runner up on Season 4 of “SYTYCD.”
Over the years, Boss returned to the competition show as an all-star and judge.
The late dancer met his wife Allison Holker Boss on the show, before tying the knot in 2013.
The pair shared kids Maddox, 9, and Zaia, 5. Boss had also adopted Holker’s oldest daughter Weslie, 17.
By 2014, the star secured a spot as the resident DJ on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show,” eventually rising to co-executive producer.
In February, Holker, 37, shut down rumors that her late husband had a falling out with Ellen DeGeneres after her talk show ended in 2022.
“I don’t love when I see rumors flying around, and it was really disappointing for me to see that people tried bringing Ellen to the situation and targeting her,” she told People at the time.
“It was not true,” continued Holker. “Ellen’s wonderful, and she’s just been a support system. If anything, she was a great example to Stephen. They had a great relationship, and he loved that relationship with her. They had something that was so special. I hope people can see that that bond is something that we shouldn’t tear down.”