Joe Manganiello says he dropped hints to his wife Sofía Vergara in 'Pee-wee's Big Holiday'

Joe Manganiello Mike Windle Getty

Mike Windle/Getty

One of the big highlights of Netflix’s “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday” is the appearance of Joe Manganiello.

Playing himself in the new movie, the “Magic Mike” star shows up to the town Pee-wee lives in and, after the two hit it off, Manganiello invites the childlike character to his birthday party in New York City. This leads to Pee-wee’s first-ever holiday, which is filled with interesting characters and hilarious dreams of Manganiello.

A die-hard Pee-wee fan, Manganiello told Business Insider that he instantly said yes to playing the role when Paul Reubens (who plays Pee-wee) personally called him a year before shooting started, asking him to be in the movie.

“For me, nothing can prepare you for putting on a Pee-wee suit, getting on a life-size piñata, and jousting while speaking Spanish with giant pinwheels of fire around you,” he said, referring to one particular dream sequence he and Ruebens did for the movie.

But what he was completely prepared for was showing his wife, Sofía Vergara, the "Modern Family" star, the finished product.

Admitting he wasn’t scared at all to show her his wacky side, he told us the two actually had a small screening party at their house with Reubens to watch the movie.

“The two of us were just laughing the whole time,” he said from the South by Southwest festival, where “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday” had its only theatrical screening (it’s currently streaming on Netflix).

But Manganiello said there’s another fun part about showing your wife a comedic role you did.

“When you know somebody the way we know each other, the other person knows when you’re doing ‘that thing’ you do,” he said. “It’s like there’s these little Easter eggs that we drop in our performances that make the other laugh.”

Sadly, Manganiello is keeping those Easter eggs to himself.

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