Salma Hayek has nothing but praise for the saucy dance moves of her “Magic Mike 3” co-star Channing Tatum.
The 55-year-old actress replaced original star Thandiwe Newton in the third installment of the stripper movie franchise and is excited to dish about the upcoming flick.
“If you thought he could dance [before], you are going to realize you haven’t seen anything,” the “House of Gucci” star told People on Thursday about Tatum’s erotic expertise.
“His dance skills — he just got better,” she explained.
“Step Up” star Tatum, 42, seemed to back that up, and divulged a few tidbits about “Magic Mike 3” last month, even revealing the scene that gets the flick rolling.
“You’ve seen me dance onstage, but you’ve never seen me give an intimate, straight-up one-on-one lap dance,” Tatum dished to “Entertainment Tonight” at the time. “That’s definitely going to be in the third one.”
Salma Hayek (left) revealed how sexy Channing Tatum’s dancing gets in the upcoming film “Magic Mike 3.”Claudette Barius
Hayek replaced original “Magic Mike 3” star Thandiwe Newton earlier this year.Getty Images“I have a pretty crazy dance that opens the movie,” he noted.
“We kick it off on a pretty strong level, and then at the end, I might do a version of the water dance in the [‘Magic Mike Live’ show],” he added. “There’s a splash zone in the movie, so it’s a for-real thing.”
Tatum will be reprising his role as stripper Mike Lane for “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” which will be directed by Steven Soderbergh of “Erin Brockovich” and “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” fame.
Tatum portrayed stripper Mike Lane in 2012’s “Magic Mike” and its 2015 sequel “Magic Mike XXL.”Claudette BariusAnd Hayek seemed to love every minute of working on the new film installment.
“Look, I’m not going to complain. On an average day, I had to work with 12 strippers. Not one, not two — 12,” she told People. “It was still hard work.”
As for her own role in the movie, Hayek noted that she just feels fortunate to be a part of the series — and not solely because of the smoking-hot content.
“It’s the strongest love story, the strongest female character, from beginning to end,” Hayek said. “How lucky am I?”
However, prepping for the film has been not been all fun and games. “21 Jump Street” alum Tatum admitted on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in February that he was initially hesitant to come back to the franchise.
Tatum said that he had body-image issues and explained why he didn’t want to do a third film at first. “It’s hard, even if you do work out, to be in that kind of shape,” he said at the time.
“You have to starve yourself,” he continued. “I don’t think when you’re that lean, it’s actually healthy for you.” Tatum also confessed that training for the role took up a lot of his time and mentioned that it’s harder for him to lose weight now than when he was younger.
