Gina Rodriguez 'Died a Little Bit Inside' When Kevin Bacon Said He 'Loved' Her: 'Thought I Played It So Super Cool' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Gina Rodriguez on ‘Lucky 13’ (left); Kevin Bacon on ‘Lucky 13’.Photo:DISNEY/Ronda Churchill

DISNEY/Ronda Churchill

Gina Rodriguez’s life has officially been made.

The actress has added a new title to her resume as she andShaquille O’Nealjoined forces to host ABC’s new game show,Lucky 13, and while the hosting gig alone is something she “never in a million years” thought she’d do, it’s brought her closer than she imagined to the one and onlyKevin Bacon.

“I’ve only met him once, and I thought I played it so super cool,” Rodriguez, 40, tells PEOPLE of meeting the star, who is an executive producer on the game show.

“And then we shot the episode and he came out and I was like, ‘I’m going to go and hug this man.’ I’m like, ‘Now’s my chance. I’m just going to walk up to him and I’m going to hug him,'” she adds.

More notably, Bacon also said “I love Gina Rodriguez” in the clip, and she admits, “When he said he loved me, yeah, I died a little bit inside. Or I came alive — I came alive a little bit more inside.”

Now that she’s heard those magic words from the Hollywood legend, she can die happy. “I think I’m done. It’s a wrap now,” she says.

Gina Rodriguez, Kevin Bacon, Shaquille O’Neal on “Lucky 13”.DISNEY/Ronda Churchill

“I just love when other actors remember that, and they are that way, and they understand that all of this is a really big show and a play and a game, and human life matters more. And that’s Kevin.”

She notes that the same can be said of her co-host. “I mean, it’s the same as Shaq. They’re both just such down-to-earth human beings.”

Lucky 13challenges its contestants to answer 13 true-or-false trivia questions, but with a cunning twist: they must accurately predict how many of the questions they answered correctly in order to take home the $1 million jackpot.

Rodriguez says it was a “super departure to be a host,” but she’s “in the era of my life of just trying new things, doing things outside of the box.”

“Lucky 13” co-hosts Shaquille O’Neal and Gina Rodriguez.DISNEY/Ronda Churchill

It helps, too, that she’s “obsessed with trivia.”

“When they approached me, I played the game and I was like, ‘This s— is fun. Oh my God, this is so fun.’ And I’m not good at trivia, but I love it. So to me, this is the everyman’s trivia,” she says of the game show’s setup.

“And no s— onJeopardy!, but when I watchJeopardy!,I’m like, ‘I don’t know 90% of these questions. And it’s making me feel like such an a–hole, so I’m going to stop watching this,'” she admits. “But forLucky 13, it’s like, it’s not only just fun trivia that’s all across the board, all over the place, from pop culture to very academic, but it’s more about knowing yourself.”

Gina Rodriguez on ‘Lucky 13’.DISNEY/Ronda Churchill

TheJane the Virginalum is crossing her fingers that she and O’Neal will be back for more after season 1.

“I hope I get to doLucky 13again, because it was so wonderful,” she says. “And it opened me up to things I never thought I would ever do, and that’s a tremendous gift, because I would never have chosen that. And here I am doing things that are spreading my wings, giving me skill sets I’d never thought I would own or even have the opportunity to gain. And so it was really rad.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Lucky 13airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and can be streamed on Hulu.

source: people.com