Actress Charlize Theron 'stands up' Spanish talk show presenters after 'urgent' phone call

The South African actress claimed she had to return to the USA, where she lives, without delay due to what is believed to be a work-related issue or an agenda clash.

Presenter and comedian Pablo Motos had to go on air telling the cult TV show's multi-million audience that she would not be appearing as planned.

Some have speculated that Ms Theron's previous criticisms of the show, which she appeared on in May 2016 with fellow Snow White and the Legend of the Hunter actress Kristen Stewart, may have led to her deciding not to repeat the exercise.

But others say she would simply have declined at the outset and that her criticisms were merely observations, or anecdotes aimed at getting a laugh.

She told presenter Jimmy Kimmel in a live US chat show interview that she had found the El Hormiguero experience 'very confusing'.

Whilst Kimmel doubled up laughing, Charlize said she found it odd how 'real-live chemistry experiments' were conducted on TV – referring to Marron's 'science' slot on the show.

And she said she and Kristen were told to 'just go crazy and do whatever you like' once on air, which they thought odd for a programme aimed at a family audience and broadcast before the watershed.

This factor also made the two young women wonder how El Hormiguero was able to get away with 'playing sexy music'

Back in 2010, US actor Jesse Eisenberg was far more critical of the Spanish production, telling talk-show host Conan O'Brien in his home country that he felt it was 'designed just to humiliate American guests' by 'showing ridiculous photographs' of them to 'take the mickey and make the audience laugh'.

Fans of the show consider this to be a mere cultural sense-of-humour clash and certainly not intended to offend or upset guests.

In fact, El Hormiguero said at the time that all guests had the chance to 'check and amend' the script before entering the live show studio, and that Eisenberg and his representatives gave his the thumbs-up.

And US actor Will Smith and Canadian pop idol Justin Bieber enjoyed themselves so much on El Hormiguero that they have appeared on the show three times.

Photograph: Screen shot by Antena 3, Spain's channel three, of Charlize Theron and Pablo Motos on El Hormiguero