Think “Magic Mike XXL” isn’t an action movie? One, er, climactic scene in the sequel features an astonishing explosion — executed without any special effects.
In a pivotal pelvic moment, Adam Rodriguez’s character Tito does a strip routine to 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop” and beckons a few lucky ladies up onstage. He traces along their thighs with chocolate sauce, then grabs two aerosol canisters. With a final, beyond-suggestive thrust, he shoots from the hip and blasts the ladies with a frothy blast of whipped cream.
When they were filming the scene, the power of the dairy topping took everyone on set by surprise.
“[It] shot out like a cannon,” Rodriguez tells The Post. “The scene you see in the movie was the very first take, and it just ended up being such a funny surprise that people were literally on the floor hysterically laughing and covered in whipped cream. [It] got everywhere.”
And what about the chocolate sauce? Was it actually sweet deliciousness, or something less appetizing mixed up by the prop department?
“Hell yeah, it was real…real chocolate sauce, real sexy,” Rodriguez says. “Don’t you wish you could taste it?”
Such shirtless, ridiculous good times abound in the film, out Wednesday. In it, Rodriguez’s Tito and pals Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer) and Tarzan (Kevin Nash) convince Magic Mike (Channing Tatum) to come out of retirement for a road trip to a male-entertainer competition in Myrtle Beach. Crotch thrusting, car crashes and cameos — including a truly memorable dance number from “Kelly and Michael” co-host Michael Strahan — ensue.
Rodriguez, 40, says making the film was as much fun as it looks on-screen, and that getting into character and slipping back into his G-string was definitely easier than it was for the original, 2012’s “Magic Mike.”
“The first time I was definitely afraid…’m not a dancer, [and] definitely not a trained dancer, so the idea of having to do routines was literally frightening,” he says. “Having built up the confidence from doing this the first time, it did make it a little bit easier this time.”
Learning to dance for the first film has had lasting effects off-screen, too. “I find myself busting a move, just spontaneously,” the actor says. “It’s almost like stripper Tourette’s . . . There is almost no control, it could happen at any time.”
But, he adds, the bikini wax remained a challenge the second time around.
“[It’s] still painful. The hardest part was the regrowth . . . it’s the worst itch you ever had in your life.”
And, while the original film didn’t delve into the guys’ — save for Magic Mike’s — back stories, the characters are a bit more developed this time.
“I don’t think any of us had more than five lines in the first movie,” says Rodriguez.
“XXL” finds Tito dreaming of opening a frozen-yogurt truck, and the actor took it seriously, imagining flavors his character might serve: green-tea olive oil with fresh mint; kiwi with basil and crystallized olive oil; caramel with cacao nibs and sea salt. “There was a huge list,” he admits.
Asked if he would ever bring food into the bedroom — or onto the stripper stage, as Tito does in the film — Rodriguez doesn’t demur.
“Hell, if it tastes good, yeah, why not add it to the mix,” says the actor, who is engaged to model Grace Gail.
For Rodriguez, spontaneity — whether or not it involves whipped cream and chocolate sauce — is key to keeping things hot.
“I think we forget to be in the moment sometimes,” he says. “When you get an impulse, just go with it.”
His career is certainly heating up. The Bronx-born actor, who spent a decade playing on “CSI: Miami,” is set to join the cast of the red-hot TV show “Empire” this fall. He’ll have a recurring role as a concert promoter named Laz Delgado who gets cozy with Cookie (Taraji P. Henson).
Rodriguez starts shooting in August and doesn’t yet know the details of his character’s arc, but says, “I know that we find ourselves in a situation where Cookie could use some help . . . in helping her out, we start to see something in each other.”
He’s a big fan of the show — “I’m a Cookie Monster,” he declares — and of Henson’s; the two co-starred in Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All by Myself.”
“We both are really excited [about working together again] . . . I got a text from her right away that was like, ‘Yayyy,’ with like a hundred Y’s,” he says.
He’s had just as much fun working with his “Magic Mike” colleagues. Rodriguez and Tatum trade parenting stories — Tatum has a 2-year-old daughter with wife Jenna Dewan, Rodriguez has a 14-month-old daughter, Frankie Elle, with Gail.
“Chan’s 10 months ahead of me in terms of experience, and he’s always giving me a heads-up as to what’s most likely around the corner,” he says. “Early on he was like, ‘Listen, [your daughter’s] not going to need you for a while, don’t let it hurt your feelings.’ ”
As for whether we can expect a third “Magic Mike,” he jokes that Tito’s story will go on — even if just in his own head.
“I think he starts a bunch of frozen-yogurt franchises, and then [his flavors] become sold in grocery stores across America,” he says. Naturally, a shirtless photo of Tito would appear on the label. “I’m Ben & Jerry with a six-pack.”
‘Take it off’ tunes
“Some songs just have that stank on them,” Rodriguez says when asked about his favorite songs to play while stripping. “When you hear them, [they] just make your body move in a certain way.” Here are three tracks that get him grinding:
“Candy Shop,” 50 Cent
It’s the soundtrack to his big performance in the film. “It used to be a ‘bob my head in the club’ song,” he says. “Now it’s going to be ‘shake my ass on the stripper stage.’ ”
“Cookie,” R. Kelly
“R. Kelly knows how to make a dirty song,” he says of this explicit ditty that Channing Tatum and tWitch perform to in the film. Given the title, he says, “It might come in handy when I’m doing ‘Empire.’ ”
“Pony,” Ginuwine
“For sure,” Rodriguez says of the soundtrack to Tatum’s signature routine in the first “Magic Mike.” “You hear ‘Pony,’ and all of a sudden I’m onstage in a strip club — although I wish I could move like Channing Tatum.”