‘Money Heist’ star Úrsula Corberó dazzles Jimmy Fallon on US late-night debut

The star of international smash hit Money Heist, Úrsula Corberó, made her debut this week as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Scheduled to coincide with the release of the final episodes of the show on streaming service Netflix, the actress appeared during a six-minute segment, discussing the international success of the series (known in Spanish as La Casa de Papel), dropping a conveniently beeped f-bomb, and telling a story about when she met Madonna, who is one of her most-famous fans. Beforehand, Nicole Kidman had appeared on the show, and the Barcelona-born actress was followed by Belgian singer Stromae.

Corberó explained to Fallon, who is one of the star TV hosts in the US, that she had traveled all the way from Madrid to appear on his show. “Can you believe this?” she joked during the interview. “My first talk show here, with Jimmy Fallon, Nicole Kidman... Chill, you know?!”

The Spanish actress, who plays the character Tokyo in Money Heist, also explained how she became aware of the international success of the show shortly after it was released via Netflix (it started life on Spanish free-to-air channel Antena 3). She was at a New Year’s Eve party in Uruguay, in December 2017, with her boyfriend Chino Darín and his father Ricardo Darín, both of whom are Argentine actors. “I went to this party, and it was crowded and all of a sudden [...] everybody was talking to me and saying, ‘Hey Tokyo, you’re a goddess!’ And I was like, ‘What’s going on here? This is crazy!”

Another of her anecdotes – such stories are the staple fare of this kind of late-night show in the US – she recounted how she met Madonna on a plane. The singer told her that Tokyo was her favorite character in the show, she gave her her phone number and later sent a message to warn her that she’d left her passport behind on her seat.

Money Heist was the most-viewed content on Netflix between November 29 and December 5, according to data from the streaming giant. Despite the final episodes only having been released on December 3, the Spanish show racked up nearly 190 million hours of streaming in just three days, well above any other show or film in English or any other language for that matter. The second-rated piece of content, Colombian telenovela The Queen of Flow, accumulated 59 million hours in the same period.

The rise in Corberó’s popularity when Money Heist arrived on Netflix is clear to see from her social media accounts. At the start of 2018, she had one million followers on Instagram. Right now, they number more than 24 million, and she is currently one of the most-popular Spanish celebrities on the social network.

In recent years, her international projects have included the show Snatch, which stars Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame, and is an adaptation of the Guy Ritchie movie of the same name from the year 2000. She also appeared in action movie Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.

Few Spanish stars have done the late-night circuit in the United States, apart from Hollywood regulars Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Antonio Banderas. The chef and philanthropist José Andrés has made use of his regular appearances with heavyweights of the genre such as Stephen Colbert to promote his home country, as well as its gastronomy in the US. In one of his recent guest slots, just ahead of Thanksgiving, he showed the presenter how to pour wine from Jerez “using tools.”

Spanish actress, presenter and socialite Ana Obregón was invited to The Tonight Show to be interviewed by then-host Johnny Carson in 1985, during the time she spent working in Hollywood (which included a guest role on The A-Team). She was promoting a Plácido Domingo Christmas holiday special, in which she was to appear, and was interviewed by Carson as she sat next to actress Bette Midler. You can see her appearance in this video, from 30m 30s onward.