-Our first guest is an Oscar winner
starring alongside Nicole Kidman in the acclaimed film,
"Being the Ricardos," which is in theaters and on Prime Video.
Here's Javier Bardem, everyone.
Ah! That's what I'm talking about!
-Hello, Jimmy.
-That's what I'm talking about, buddy.
It's so great to see you.
Thank you for -- welcome -- -Good to see you.
-Happy new year. Thank you for coming on.
I appreciate you doing this.
Maybe a month ago your lovely wife, Penelope Cruz,
was on our program and we talked to her.
And I asked her about -- I've seen video of you on stage
with Bono at a U2 concert wearing a purple boa.
And I just wanted to hear your version of the story.
[ Laughter ]
-My version of the story is very simple.
Bono asked us, "Hey, guys, we are playing in Barcelona
and we are bringing like 10 people.
Would you like to get on stage?"
And I said, "Yes."
She said, "no," at the same time.
And then I said to Bono, "Bono, the only thing that I wanted to
tell you is that if I get on stage,
some people may not like that.
May go like, 'Hey, what's that guy doing there?'"
He says, "Okay, do whatever you have to do."
So I put a hat on. I put on a purple boa.
I do my most erotic movements as I could imagine.
[ Laughter ]
Because the song was "Mysterious Ways."
[ Laughter ] And then, of course, the song
finishes and then I took the hat off
and the whole stadium was like, "Boo!"
[ Laughter ]
I said, "I told you, my friend."
-No, no, no.
I actually know people loved it because it went viral.
Everyone was talking about it. We actually have a video.
Let's take a look at Javier Bardem and Bono.
Look at this.
[ Laughter ]
How awesome is this guy?
-Look at that.
-Yeah! [ Applause ]
People were holding -- That means number one.
That's the finger you want.
I saw people were going like that.
That's a good thing.
We also talked about you guys
went to a few parties at Prince's house.
-Yeah. -And we love Prince here
and always love hearing Prince stories.
But how do you remember the --
Do you remember the first party you went to at his house?
-Yeah. Well, it was the night that I won the Oscar.
It was 2008.
And then I went to his house
because Penelope was a good friend of him.
And then I said, "It's Javier Bardem plus 17."
Because I brought 17 people with me to the Oscars.
Which I don't understand how in the world today I could fit
17 people in the theater.
So we went on then. He was so generous.
Like, he let all the 17 -- all the 18 to come to the party.
-Wow! -What a sweetheart.
-But also there's a story I heard that you're one of
the reasons why he was late to one of his concerts.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. That was in London.
Again, Penelope knew him very well.
He invited us.
Penelope and I and Jordi Molla, which is a good friend of ours,
another actor, to have dinner before the show.
And then we were having dinner and we took dessert
and we were having a drink, two drinks.
And we were like, "Nobody's coming here to pick us up."
So I step out of the room and I said, "Hey, we are here."
"Ah, are you finished?" "Yes."
Then Prince came and said, "Are you done?"
"Yes." So he told us to go to the seats.
We were accompanied to our seats.
And then the show started.
And we were like, "Oh, my God!
They've been waiting an hour for us to finish the dinner!"
So that's my Hollywood star story.
-Wow! -I made people wait for an hour.
-You really are -- -I'm sorry.
[ Laughter ]
It's really -- Success has really gone to your head.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
That's hilarious that he --
-I didn't know. I swear to God, I didn't know.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
What happened to me once, I was at a concert with Billy Joel
at Madison Square Garden.
I went back to say hi to Billy
with my mom and dad before the show.
And we're talking to Billy,
and, you know, he's, again, a super-nice guy.
And we started talking about doo-wop.
And I go, "Yeah, I love doo-wop.
My dad used to sing in the streets."
And Billy was like, "Oh, yeah? What'd you sing?"
We just started singing like ♪ as we stroll ♪
We just started harmonizing.
We must have sang 10 songs.
[ Laughter ]
At least five songs.
And then we're like, "Dude, it's like 9:00."
[ Laughter ] What is going on?
It's the only time I've think he's ever been late.
So again, I'm sorry to everyone out there.
That was my fault. [ Laughter ]
Yeah. But I did not mean to do that.
-It's just the passion. -It's just passion.
Yeah, that's all it is.
I want to ask you about this because I've seen
all of your movies and --
-I'm sorry for you.
[ Laughter ] -No, I'm so lucky.
But a lot of them I would say are not kid-friendly.
Most of them.
But you have kids.
And I go, "Well, now it's time to start
doing some things your kids can see."
You're in the live remake,
the live adaptation of "The Little Mermaid."
[ Cheers and applause ] -Absolutely, yes.
And here's breaking news.
I'm playing Ariel.
[ Laughter ] -Wow!
-Where's the cheers? I don't hear the cheers.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Ariel.
-Don't worry, don't worry. That's not going to happen.
That will be a horrible nightmare for the kids.
But the thing is, once I heard about the story
that Rob Marshall, which is a person that I adore
and I profoundly deep love as a person, as a director.
-Oh, Rob Marshall, amazing director.
-When I knew he was going to do the movie,
I texted him and said, "Listen, I'm sure you have
already casted King Triton,
but if there is room for a Triton with an accent,
I'm here." [ Laughter ]
And he said, "That's funny.
I'm in the grocery store with John and we were going to
text you if you were ever interested."
It was right in the moment.
And my, at the time, 6-year-old daughter, I said,
"I may be in 'The Little Mermaid.'"
And she was, like, almost crying.
[ Audience aws ]
And I said, "I'm not playing Ariel, Luna."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, exactly, yeah.
-And she said, "No, you're playing Triton, right?"
So yes, and she was so taken by it that I forgot --
Of course, that's the best thing you can do for a movie --
for your daughter. -Yeah, exactly.
I know you -- You just recently got --
Your son is a little bit older than your daughter.
-Yes. -He's 10.
And you got to take him to see a movie with you in it.
You took him to see "Dune."
-Yes. -And you're in that.
To watch your kid watch you, what -- I mean, that's so --
-It was the first time I brought my kid
to see a movie of mine.
Thank God the theater was packed.
That was before the Omicron hit so hard everywhere.
-Yeah. -So we had popcorn.
We had a soda.
And then he was like, "Dad, you're not in the movie."
I said, "Hold on, hold on. Wait, wait.
It's only at the end."
-But of course. He's a kid.
-And he loved the movie, but he's like,
"Where are you, Dad?" I said, "Shhhh.
People shouldn't know that I'm here
because if they don't like it, they can scream at me."
[ Laughter ] So we were watching the movie
and finally, I show up, and he kind of -- "Wow."
Loved it. It was the first time.
I was so deeply honored and proud of what I do.
-Proud papa, yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-"My kid saw it and he approved it."
-That's a moment right there.