Channing Tatum Still Loves Amanda Bynes and Is So Happy She's 'Back on the Right'

Channing Tatum hasn't seen Amanda Bynes in a long time, but he's still got nothing but "love" for his "She's the Man" co-star.

"I love her and I just hope she's doing well," the movie star told ET Wednesday night at the premiere of "Magic Mike Live" in London. "I'm so happy she's killing it again and just back on the right. She's so talented and so special."

Tatum was responding to the actress telling Paper Magazine in its annual Break the Internet issue that she "totally fought" for him to be cast in the 2006 comedy.

"He wasn't famous yet," she explained while reflecting on her career that came to a halt years ago after she developed depression and a drug addiction. "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!'"

"I don't know about all that," Tatum said humbly and added, "I guess she sort of told me."

Bynes became more well known for her erratic, drug-induced behavior than her acting over the last decade. "I'm really ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said," she said while explaining that drugs made her "a completely different person."

She's been sober for the last four years and she's very happy to be back on the straight and narrow.

"I don't miss it because I really feel ashamed of how those substances made me act," she said. "When I was off of them, I was completely back to normal and immediately realized what I had done —- it was like an alien had literally invaded my body. That is such a strange feeling."

Tatum doesn't blame her for losing sight of herself, though.

"I think it's so impossible when you start at such a young age to keep perspective. It's tough," said the understanding actor.

"She was just so alive. You never knew what was going to come out her mouth, she was just on fire," he said. "I haven't seen her in so long. I love you, Amanda, and I hope you're doing well."

Although Tatum and Bynes seem to have fond memories of each other from the production, the recovering addict shared in her comeback interview that "She's the Man" sparked a serious wave of depression for her, because the teen comedy required her to dress up like a man and she was disturbed by her appearance.

"I didn't like how I looked when I was a boy," she explained. "I've never told anyone that," she added, saying that her boyish appearance "just really put me into a funk."

When her next film, "Easy A," was screened, she said she "literally couldn't stand my appearance" or her performance in the film.

"I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it," she explained. "I was high on marijuana when I saw that but for some reason it really started to affect me. I don't know if it was a drug-induced psychosis or what, but it affected my brain in a different way than it affects other people."

These days she's currently enrolled at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, where she's about to graduate with an Associate's of Art degree in Merchandise Product Development. She also wants to return to acting.

In closing, she added, "I have no fear of the future. I've been through the worst and came out the other end and survived it so I just feel like it's only up from here."

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