Invitation star Penelope Cruz is one of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses. But even she couldn’t fake it when faced with a slew of mouth-searing sauces in the series’ latest episode. Hot.
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“I’m very nervous,” she told host Sean Evans. “I do this because I like your show, but I like to laugh at other people when they do it.” The Spanish star may have spoken to her soon in the episode’s intro because by the end of her hot sauce challenge she was begging for some ice cream and cursing her decision to take on the challenge.
Cruz said she agreed to be on the show because her children told her, before giggling, that she was definitely “ready.” A few wings later, things were looking good for Cruise, as Evans noted that he invited her good friend, actress Salma Hayek, to the show four years ago and wondered if the couple had any good adventures lately.
“We’re very close. It’s like a big sister to me,” she said of Hayek, describing how, despite being afraid of clowns, they both dressed up as them for Halloween last year when things went really, really wrong on a flight. “I don’t like clowns. They’re scary no matter what. But imagine we were on a plane full of people and 10 of us were dressed as clowns,” she said, painting a vivid picture that the show recreated through animation. “And then the pilot said, ‘Oxygen mask, we’re depressurizing the cabin,'” she added, describing flight attendants running around with oxygen masks and hiding in the bathroom.
“We were very lucky. We landed safely. But it was such a crazy bonding experience,” she recalls. “We landed and they had to put us on another plane because they were going to start filming in a few hours. And, of course, we were late to the set, but we survived. And it was really crazy.”
As the Scoville level began to rise, Cruz, who avoids hot food, said she thinks people are lying about how spicy things are on the show, brushing off the heat level in her run, and confidently asked Evans if she could get some kind of reward for sprinting through his challenge.
She then talked about how nice it was to take her son and teenage daughter with husband Javier Bardem to a Bad Bunny concert last year. “We were in the car and the kids introduced me to his music,” she said. “And I thought, ‘But these lyrics aren’t for you.’ You know, we tried to fight it for a while, but then I started listening without interruption myself.”
They all traveled to meet Benito in Puerto Rico for the opening of his historic residence No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui in 2025, where she and Bardem were special guests on stage at the VIP casita. “I’ve already been five times. But the first time in Puerto Rico was when Benito came to me and asked me to go with him (to present a song)… And finally, my kids came to me and said, ‘Mom, we can finally say that you’re cool.’ We can say you’re a great mother.” I said, “Thank you, Benito.” Thank you. It took me all these years.”
While she continued to seem (mostly) indifferent to spice, Evans stumbled upon the one thing that really scares Cruise: driving. “I’m really scared of driving,” she admitted before (name) dropped the top bomb. “I’m going to say something that I didn’t plan to say, but my friend Bono gave me a car for my last birthday. How crazy it sounds, but he gave me a car. And I think that’s the best push for it. Like, after you get the car from Bono, you don’t get a license? How crazy is that?”
Now, thanks to the U2 singer, Cruz said she’s considering taking lessons again. May be.
Her steely reserve finally broke after tasting the 135,600 Da Bomb sauce, which she initially declared she could handle, before reaching for a glass of milk and exclaiming in Spanish: “Very bad, very bad, very bad, terrible, terrible, you can’t describe (how bad)!” This hurts!” day.
Finally, succumbing to the heat, a red-eyed and puffing Cruz emerged victorious, even as she lamented that the whole experience had been “horrible” and begged Team Evans to bring some ice cream to soothe her burning mouth.
Invitationstarring Cruise, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and directed by Olivia Wilde, hits theaters July 10.
Watch Cruz at Hot below.
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