Channing Tatum’s stint as Beyonce on Spike TV's Lip Sync Battle was one of the month's most talked about onscreen moments, due in part to Queen Bey's surprise appearance. You’d think a moment like that would’ve been fairly planned out — this is Beyonce we’re talking about, someone whose every moment seems perfectly curated — but not so. Their performance, says Tatum, was the first time the two ever even came face-to-face.

“That is the first time I ever met her, right there. That was it,” Tatum said during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres. “I had never met her before. I won't even tell you what I had to do to essentially get her assistant’s phone number."

Tatum initially reached out to Beyonce's team to get permission to include a cardboard cutout of the "Countdown" singer as part of his act. But things quickly escalated, and the real Beyonce showed up onstage, instead.

“She’s like Keyser Söze,” he said, invoking the name of Kevin Spacey’s fictional character from the movie The Usual Suspects. "You know she exists but you never see her until all of a sudden you’re just like, ‘It happened! Wait, that was her, right?’ And then you always know she’s somewhere in the world that can reach out and touch you."

Beyonce peaced out immediately afterward, so Tatum didn't even have a chance to properly speak with her: "I said 'Hi,' She was like, ‘Hey! That was really funny, see ya.’"

But Beyonce did reach out to Tatum following the performance. He says she texted him, “Hey I would love to meet you [and Jenna Dewan-Tatum] and hang out when you’re not looking like me. It’s terrifying.”

Watch Channing Tatum explain his encounter with Beyonce in the video above.

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