Joe Manganiello Talks THAT Scene From Magic Mike XXL

Decades from now, when people are living on the moon and driving flying cars and taking them to see Magic Mike XVI: The Golden Years, we will still be YouTubing Joe Manganiello’s epic convenience-store dance scene from Magic Mike XXL. A refresher, in case you blacked out from lust: The boys challenge Big Dick Richie to get a grouchy cashier to smile, and he goes to work—armed with only a Backstreet Boys soundtrack and the snacks at hand. Turns out he’s the MacGyver of seductive choreography, because it all works out. We asked Manganiello for the story behind the sequence.

It came from the same place all good ideas come from. “Channing and Reid [Carolin, who wrote and produced the film] came up with that scene in a hot tub one night.”

The one-on-one setting was a big change of pace from the rest of the film. “During some scenes, there were close to 1,000 extras. They’d get louder on every take. That made us want to always top the last one, to give them something fresh. But it was wild.”

Manganiello himself Wanted It That Way. “Warner Bros. gave me a list of music to pick. There was no doubt in my mind that Big Dick Richie was a closet Backstreet Boys fan. I felt that part of his backstory was that he would know the full-on choreography for ‘I Want It That Way,’ and he had practiced it in front of the mirror at home.”

Actress Lindsey Moser—the cashier—never broke stone-faced character. “My God, that girl was genius. And she’s not that way in real life, either! She’s super fun and super cool. Then they turned on the camera and she was down to business. And just that little crack of a smile at the end—phenomenal.”

Yep, he came out of it thinking the same thing we did. “I’ll never look at a bag of Cheetos the same way again.”

More Mike-ish magic:

7 Fun Facts About Channing Tatum

31 Things That Could Not Stop Us From Seeing Magic Mike XXL in Theaters

How Magic Mike XXL Became the Most Shockingly Feminist Movie of the Summer