Teyana Taylor Keeps Her Cool on ‘Hot Ones,’ Talks Fantasy Restaurant

Teyana Taylor knows from hot food. But the Oscar-nominated One Battle After Another star and admitted foodie wasn’t foolish enough to save the hard questions for the end, so she asked Hot Ones host Sean Evans to front-load the “deep” questions before things fall apart. “I’m a spicy food girl. I love spicy,” the Golden Globe-winning singer/actress/dancer said confidently on the latest episode of the chat-and-sweat web series. “I just don’t know what you planted in these wings. So I’m, like, cautious, you know, alert.”

Evans, who notoriously does his homework, hit Taylor with a question off the top about her decision to enroll in the prestigious Escoffier School of Culinary Arts last year, where she’s pursuing a degree in pastry and culinary, wondering what her dream restaurant would look like. Taylor pictured a retro servers-on-skate diner vibe with banquettes shaped like 1950s cars, with leather chef’s jackets. “It’s gonna be something cute,” she said, already picturing the merch.

Four wings in, Taylor bit into the first truly hot wing, a Smokin’ Dragon sauce that led to a question about her most heated dance battle. “I think my most intense battle was in, like, third grade,” she said of the showdown that took place at recess with no music. “And I just, I remember we just got it, we got it popping. We had to like, I don’t even know what was playing,” she recalled.

Taylor also weighed in on keeping her cool on stage when things go wrong, such as embracing her wig flying off and whipping it around her head, the proper form for double-dutching and having patience in Hollywood. “I just learned that there’s always something bigger in store for you,” she said. “So even when you get that no, understanding that that no is also a win. And I think that patience is a part of knowing what’s for you and what’s not.”

The “Maybe” singer was starting to feel it by the time she bit into a wing covered in “Da Bomb” (135,600 Scoville level). “Baby, I need you to stop asking me questions right now, let’s take a beat,” she said as she got close to the finish line and tried to answer a question for a 2020 Billboard interview in which she said R&B music is the “realest b–ch” in the world.

Taking a sip of milk and then cranberry juice, she explained, “no stone is left unturned in R&B. You get to be your most vulnerable,” as she joined Evans in chewing ice to alleviate the pain. “You shoulda asked me all the cute questions up top,” she said. “I had all the answers in the world earlier. I was spitting bars. Now it’s just getting a little… crazy.”

The chat ended with Taylor trying to keep her cool while rhapsodizing about her love for the classic 1990 Julia Roberts/Richard Gere romcom Pretty Woman. “I love the idea of fairytales as well. And I just love love,” she said. “Julia Roberts is like my favorite person in the whole wide world. And it was just my favorite. I had the biggest crush on Richard Gere … it’s one of my favorite films.”

Watch Teyana Taylor on Hot Ones below.