Penélope Cruz was asked to share a memorable moment with her longtime friend Salma Hayek, and the anecdote she told was one for the books.
In a Thursday episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones, the 52-year-old Oscar winner recalled a “really crazy” Halloween story with Hayek, 59, in which the two boarded a plane “wearing clown wigs and outfits.”
“Imagine being on a plane full of people, and 10 of us were dressed like clowns. And then the pilot said, ‘Oxygen masks! We’re having a depressurization of the cabin,’” Cruz told host Sean Evans, describing how flight attendants were running and hiding in the bathroom.
“That was such a crazy bonding experience,” the Volver actress recalled, saying she and Hayek were “lucky” to land safely. The pair were still late to set—“but alive”—after being put on another plane.
The Spanish and Mexican-American actresses have been close friends for over two decades, often describing each other as “sisters.”
The two first met in 1999, when Hayek welcomed Cruz into her home as she was settling into life in Los Angeles.
“You don’t know me, but you’re coming to my house. I’m not going to leave you alone,” Hayek told Cruz when she arrived in Hollywood to begin her career.
The actresses later starred together in the 2006 film Bandidas, playing two women who team up to become bank-robbing partners in late 19th-century Mexico.
Cruz appeared on Hot Ones to promote her latest film, The Invite, in which she stars alongside Edward Norton, Seth Rogen, and Olivia Wilde as an upstairs neighbor invited to a dinner party.
She also shared another anecdote with Evans, revealing how she became the “cool mom” to her two children after stepping on stage with Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny during one of his concerts.
The actress described how she initially told her children that Bad Bunny’s lyrics were not for them after they introduced her to the reggaeton and Latin trap artist, but later found herself unable to stop listening.
Cruz attended five of his shows and was later invited backstage, where the artist—real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—asked her to say the line: “P.R. es otra cosa,” which translates to English as “Puerto Rico is something else.”
“My kids came to me and said, ‘Mom. Finally, you, we can say you are cool. We can say you are a cool mother,’” Cruz said about the post-concert hype she received from her children, adding, “I was like, thank you, Benito. Thank you. Oh, it took me all these years!”
