Pssst, Pee-wee Herman and Joe Manganiello's meet-cute was real

The fateful meet-cute between Pee-wee Herman and Joe Manganiello in Pee-wee's Big Holiday wasn't just a bit of fantasy bromance played for laughs -- it's really more of a parallel universe version of what happened between the two actors in real life.

Anyone who watched the Netflix original movie over the weekend knows that the story kicks off when Manganiello descends upon Pee-wee’s idyllic town of Fairville, hopping off his vintage Harley Davidson and strutting into Dan’s Diner where Pee-wee makes him the best chocolate milkshake he’s ever had.

The two bond over their mutual love of root beer barrel candies, and the PG-version of a bromo-erotic courtship ensues. 

Manganiello is playing himself -- or to hear him tell it, more of "a weird, funny version of what people think I am if they read tabloids" -- but it wasn't always meant to be that way.

Dan's Diner, Emmys party, same difference

The real-life version of that chance meeting was at an Emmys party in 2011, when Reubens was nominated for The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway; Manganiello was there with his True Blood family. The 6'5" Pennsylvania native spotted Reubens from across the room and braved the crowd to introduce himself to one of his favorite childhood characters.

"Those [parties] are full of employees that want selfies with you," Manganiello told Mashable. "If you want to go to the bathroom, you're talking an hour and a half to two hours. [You’re supposed to] get there, get to a chair, sit down and hide. Against better judgment, I stood up and just started moving across this room to try to get to Paul."

The two became fast friends, and went on a bro-date to the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA -- Burton had directed Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, his first feature and for most, his introduction to the mainstream. Reubens later contacted Manganiello and told him he’d been working on a Pee-wee comeback movie and that he might be reaching out to him with a role.

Manganiello was game.

In the Judd Apatow-produced film, which premiered at SXSW last week, Pee-wee has no idea who Manganiello is, has never heard of True Blood or seen his magical abs in Magic Mike and cannot pronounce his name correctly.

In fact, the role that Manganiello played was not originally in the script. Instead it was a fake famous actor, "Joe Mancuso." On the day of shooting, they were huddled up discussing the scene and Manganiello suggested he mess around and say his real name instead.

"It wasn't scripted," he reveals about what is easily the funniest scene in the light chuckle-worthy movie. "I did a take where I said 'Joe Manganiello' -- and Joe Mancuso had all these other fake movies, so I just [listed off] True Blood and Magic Mike. That was the take that we used."

But why another Pee-wee movie now?

"Why not now?" Reubens asks inquisitively, a completely reserved and almost shy, spry man of 64 -- a retort not too far from I know you are but what am I?

“Why not 30 years ago? I don’t think [there was a purposeful break from Pee-wee]," he told Mashable. "There was a point when I got really burned out and tired and thought it would be fun to have a break, but the break got super extended. Then I felt like it was time, but once I decided it was time, nobody else thought it was time.”

Just don't call it a nostalgia trip.

"I'm so not interested in revisiting certain things,” he says. “In other words, at the height of success of my first Pee-wee movie I wouldn't agree to doing a sequel to Big Adventure where the bike gets stolen again or something about the bike. It's not that interesting to me [to repeat a storyline]. I try to be fresh and do stuff that's new, but I'm doing it within the context of a character that's been around a long time. I have kind of a checks and balance system where I just ask myself, 'Does this seem too much like something in [one of my other storylines]?' And if the answer's no, then it's OK [to use]."

There was a point in Reubens career, however, when he felt stuck in the role of Pee-wee. So he decided to relax the rules for the character, which made him feel like it was OK to perform in roles he might not have at a time when Pee-wee was at his peak.

"So much time has gone by now," he says, "and I have a separate acting career that's not related to Pee-wee Herman. That gives me a lot of latitude, and I get to do all this other stuff that I don't get to do as Pee-wee."

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