Channing Tatum's Broadway Tap Coach Meredith Patterson on the Joy of Yelling at the Hail, Caesar! Hunk

Meredith Patterson has been tapping since she was two. She’s hoofed on Broadway in 42nd Street and White Christmas, but her latest project put her behind the scenes of a major motion picture—and alone in a room with Channing Tatum.

Patterson taught 2012’s Sexiest Man Alive everything he now knows about tap dancing, a skill he had to master for a six-minute production number called "No Dames" in the Coen brother’s new film Hail, Caesar! It started as a Facebook message from the movie’s choreographer, Christopher Gattelli. The Tony winner directed Patterson in Radio Girl at the Goodspeed, and with her Broadway background and L.A. sensibility, she was the right pick to catch Tatum up to speed before shooting the big scene.

“They wanted him to look like Gene Kelly,” Patterson told Broadway.com. “I had no problem with that!” Starting in October—while four months pregnant—she gave Tatum private lessons, covering everything from the most basic steps to getting his very own pair of LaDucas. They worked at it for three months. Patterson remembers her initial reaction to the timeline: “'You’re going to master tap dancing in three months? It takes people 30 years!' But he did; he worked tremendously hard.”

Though they were both intimidated by the other, Tatum eventually gave her the go-ahead to yell at him, which broke any remaining tension. “I started being a little tough on him. We were really just doing what was best for him.”

Patterson was also put Tatum at ease by assuring him that while he may not be a tapper, he certainly had moves of his own—as evident in Magic Mike and Step Up. On a break from a difficult combination,Tatum taught Patterson a few hip-hop moves. “I was embarrassingly bad,” she admitted with a laugh. “[It would take me] probably a year before I could do anything hip hop—for him to step out of his comfort zone makes me admire him so much more.”

Patterson, who's set to star in the upcoming The Real Housewives at L.A.'s Falcon Theatre, hopes more Hollywood stars strap on tap shoes for the camera. “[Hail, Caesar!] is going to show studios and networks that people love this and want more of it.”

After his tap intensive, could Broadway be next for Tatum? The Hollywood star might not think so, but the coach says otherwise. “I think he could do it. I wouldn’t force him, though. The first thing I thought was that he would be a really great Billy Flynn in Chicago.”

Somebody call the Weisslers.