7 Pieces of Magic Mike XXL Trivia You Need to Know After Seeing the Movie

Jada Pinkett Smith's character, Rome, was originally intended to be played by a man. Specifically, Channing Tatum envisioned his White House Down costar Jamie Foxx. When that didn't work out, Pinkett Smith was cast — a decision the actress called "smart." "It changed the dynamic of the show," she said on the set.

BDR's big convention number is one of the highlights of the movie, and it's not just 900 screaming extras (and your entire theater) who is cheering him on during that scene. I was on a set visit last year with a group of reporters, and not only were the guys who were not in that scene, like Channing Tatum, watching eagerly from the sidelines, but Joe Manganiello's now-fiancée, Sofia Vergara, was watching too. Manganiello had several takes to get the scene right, as usual, and when he nailed the whole routine, everyone in the building — extras, crew, costars on the sidelines, reporters visiting for the day, and Ms. Vergara — all exploded in applause.

That money the excited (and stupidly lucky) extras stuff into thongs and use to make it rain? All real. When I visited the set last year, the prop master said they used about $5,000 in singles and expected to get it all back. The reason to use the real deal and not some sort of monopoly money? "Fake" money has more rules.

Elizabeth Banks had a memorable moment at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards with Joe Manganiello in his fireman costume, and when we chatted with Manganiello on the set, he said the incident probably led to her casting. "I think how she handled that, God bless her soul, definitely probably led her to the powers that be thinking that she could handle this," he said.

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