Fans are celebrating 15 years of She’s the Man, the iconic flick that first hit theaters on March 17, 2006, and became an immediate cult-classic. Starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum, the movie is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night but set at boarding school with a bunch of teenagers.
After the girls’ soccer team gets cut at her high school, Viola Hastings (played by Amanda) enrolls at an opposing school and poses as her twin brother Sebastian to prove that she can make it with the boys’ team. Meanwhile, her brother jets off to London to pursue a music career, so his sister is just covering for him. Complete with a wig and full suit, Viola shows up to school and introduces herself to everyone as Sebastian. Naturally, things get complicated when she starts to fall in love with her roommate, Duke (played by Channing). In the end, Viola reveals her true identity during a soccer game against her old high school slays the field.
“I totally fought for Channing [to get cast in] that movie because he wasn’t famous yet,” Amanda told Paper magazine in November 2018 when reflecting on She’s the Man. “He’d just done a Mountain Dew commercial and I was like, ‘This guy’s a star — every girl will love him!’ But [the producers] were like, ‘He’s so much older than all of you!’ And I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter! Trust me!'”
Of course, Amanda couldn’t see the future, but she was right. The heartthrob went on to be a pretty major star all thanks to his costar. Following Amanda’s admission, the Step Up alum also reflected on working with the former Nickelodeon star and said, “I love her,” noting that she was “so talented and so special” to work with.
“She was just so alive,” Channing recalled during an interview with Entertainment Tonight in November 2018. “You never knew what was going to come out her mouth, she was just on fire … I haven’t seen her in so long. I love you, Amanda, and I hope you’re doing well.”
The Amanda Show alum, for her part, has since retired from acting after starring in the 2010 rom-com Easy A, but Channing and the rest of their She’s the Man costars — including Robert Hoffman, Alexandra Breckenridge, James Snyder and more — have continued their stints in Hollywood. Some of them have even nabbed some pretty major roles over the years. Scroll through our gallery to see what the She’s the Man cast is up to now — 15 years later!
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