Penélope Cruz Talks Hopping on Stage With Bad Bunny in Puerto Rico and Bono’s Outrageous Birthday Gift on ‘Hot Ones’
Categoria: Musica
The star of The Invite told host Sean Evans that she was unafraid of spice ... until she had to beg for some ice cream to cool things down.
Por Billboard | 02/07/2026
The Invite star Penélope Cruz is one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors. But even she could not fake it when confronted with the array of mouth-scorching sauces in front of her on the latest episode of Hot Ones . “I’m very nervous,” she told host Sean Evans. “I’m doing this because I love your show, but I love laughing at other people when they do it.” The Spanish star may have spoken to soon in the intro to the episode, because by the end of her hot sauce gauntlet, she was begging for some ice cream and cursing her decision to take the challenge. Cruz said she agreed to do the show because her kids told her to, before snickering that she was for sure “cooked.” A few wings in, Cruz was doing fine, as Evans noted that he had her good friend actress Salma Hayek on the show four years ago and wondered if the pair had had any good adventures lately. “We’re really close. It’s like an older sister for me,” she said of Hayek, describing how, despite being terrified of clowns, they both dressed as them for Halloween last year when things went very, very wrong on a flight. “I don’t like clowns. They are scary no matter what. But imagine being on a plane full of people and 10 of us were dressed like clowns,” she said, painting a vivid picture the show recreated with an animation. “And then the pilot said, ‘oxygen mask, we’re having a de-pressurization of cabin,'” she added, describing the flight attendants running around with oxygen masks and hiding in the bathroom. “We were very lucky. We landed safely. But that was such a crazy bonding experience,” she recalled. “We landed and they had to put us on another plane because we were supposed to be shooting a few hours later. And of course we were late on set, but alive. And it was really crazy.” As the Scoville level began to rise, Cruz, who avoids hot foods, said she thought people lie about how spicy things get on the show, brushing off the level of heat so far in her run, confidently asking Evans if she could get some kind of award for sprinting through his challenge. She then talked about the rewarding nature of taking her teenage son and daughter with her husband Javier Bardem to see Bad Bunny in concert last year. “We were in the car [and] the kids introduced me to his music,” she said. “So I was like, ‘but these lyrics are not for you.’ You know, we were trying to fight that for a while, but then I was like non-stop listening by myself.” They all went to see Benito in Puerto Rico at the launch of his historic 2025 No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui residency, where she and Bardem were special guests in the onstage VIP casita set . “I’ve already been five times. But the first one in Puerto Rico is when Benito came to me and asked me to go with him to [introduce a song] … And finally, my kids came to me and said, ‘Mom, finally we can say you are cool