Amanda Bynes Credits Herself with Launching Channing Tatum's Career with 'She's the Man'

Amanda Bynes played teenager Viola, who poses as her twin brother Sebastian, in 2006’s She’s the Man. Behind the scenes, the actress wore even more hats.

Bynes helped with casting, and credits herself with getting Channing Tatum his breakout role in the film.

“I totally fought for Channing [to get cast in] that movie because he wasn’t famous yet,” Bynes, 32, said in an interview in Paper Magazine’s Break the Internet issue. “He’d just done a Mountain Dew commercial and I was like, ‘This guy’s a star — every girl will love him!’ “

But the former child star claimed that the rest of the team wasn’t sold on casting Tatum, now 38.

“[The producers] were like, ‘He’s so much older than all of you!’ “ she recalled. “And I was like, ‘It doesn’t matter! Trust me!’ ”

Tatum, who is just six years older than Bynes, went on to play her hunky and sensitive love interest, who infamously puts a tampon up his nose after Viola convinces him they stop nose bleeds as an attempt to keep from blowing her cover.

Later that year, Tatum starred in Step Up, which cemented him as a Hollywood standout and introduced him to Jenna Dewan, his wife of nine years and the mom to his 5-year-old daughter Everly. He’s also starred in the Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street franchises, and appeared in action films like Haywire, Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Logan Lucky.

She’s the Man remains a favorite among millennials, but Bynes doesn’t have fond memories of the comedy. Upon seeing the movie, Bynes didn’t like how she looked as a boy with short hair and sideburns, calling it “a super strange and out-of-body experience. It just really put me into a funk.”

“I went into a deep depression for 4-6 months because I didn’t like how I looked when I was a boy,” Bynes admitted.

The next year, she bounced back with Hairspray, in which Bynes played Penny Pingleton alongside Zac Efron and John Travolta.

“That movie to this day was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had on a set,” said Bynes, who is now studying at Los Angeles’ Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.