Channing Tatum responds to Dave Chappelle controversy

Channing Tatum has defended Dave Chappelle as a comedian who can "heal" as well as "hurt" people following the release of the funnyman's controversial Netflix special.

Earlier this month, the 48-year-old comedian released his sixth stand-up show for Netflix, The Closer. Chappelle immediately faced backlash for jokes made about the LGBTQ+ community, specifically transgender people - which has caused internal ructions at the streaming giant and public rebukes from fellow comedians, including Hannah Gadsby.

Tatum took to his Instagram Story page on Monday to share his thoughts on the situation, writing "I understand that Dave is a very dangerous person to talk about at the moment. I understand and hate that he has hurt so many people with things he has said."

He continued, "Any human can hurt someone (usually cause they're hurt) but any human can heal and heal others just the same."

The 21 Jump Street star then shared a speech Chappelle made at the Kennedy Centre in 2019 while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

In the acceptance speech, the Chappelle's Show star opened up about his childhood and how his personality off-camera is much different than his performing persona.

"I was a soft kid. I was sensitive, I'd cry easy and I would be scared to fistfight. My mother used to tell me this thing...'Son, sometimes you have to be a lion so you can be the lamb you really are.' I talk this s**t like a lion. I'm not afraid of any of you. When it comes word to word, I will gab with the best of them, just so I can chill and be me," the comedian says in the clip.

Tatum stressed that although the comedian's speech helped him, "This doesn't excuse anything hurtful tho to be clear."