Kate del Castillo angry at herself over Sean Penn interview

Actress Kate Del Castillo is "angry" at herself for inadvertently helping Sean Penn land an interview with fugitive drug lord El Chapo.

The Mexican beauty helped orchestrate Penn's top secret meeting with the crime boss, real name Joaquin Guzman, last year (15), while he was on the run from authorities, after befriending the crime boss over a possible movie biopic.

Del Castillo thought the Oscar winner was genuinely interested in helping her get a film off the ground, and she maintains she had no idea Penn was actually planning to interview El Chapo for a Rolling Stone magazine expose about the war on drugs. The piece was subsequently published a day after El Chapo was recaptured by authorities in January (16).

Del Castillo recently gave her first in-depth interview about the whole controversy to the New Yorker magazine, slamming claims Penn made to the same publication about informing the actress of his intentions.

She blasted the Milk star's comments, calling them, "total and complete bulls**t."

Now she is opening up further in a candid interview for news show 20/20, admitting she feels foolish for failing to realize why Penn was so keen to meet El Chapo's at his jungle hideout in October (15).

Asked if she is angry with Penn, she replied, "Yes, a little bit, I am. I think he was never interested in the movie."

However, she added, "I'm hurt, but again, I'm angry at myself because I believe in people, and I didn't know Sean Penn."

Meanwhile, del Castillo, who was contacted by El Chapo's representatives after posting a message of support on Twitter in 2012, believes he kept the lines of communication open even while on the run because he had fallen for her La Reina del Sur TV character, fictional drug lord Teresa Mendoza.

"I don't think it was necessarily me, Kate del Castillo... he probably had a crush on Teresa Mendoza," she mused. "We'll have to ask him. It looks like (that) with the text (messages they exchanged)... I think he's maybe an admirer, I don't know."

"OK, maybe yes!," she eventually relented.

Del Castillo also recalled fearing for her life the night she and Penn spent in El Chapo's hideout, after deciding to urge the fugitive to use his power to do some good for the people of Mexico.

"My heart started pounding," she remembered. "I actually got the guts to tell him. It's now or never, and if I don't say it right now, I might not have another opportunity, and if I say it, these might be my last words. So I ask him, I said... when we were walking, 'Amigo, just don't forget what I said in my tweet originally. You are a powerful man, you can do something good."

The 43-year-old also told El Chapo she wanted to find a way to acknowledge victims of organized crime, even though she knew she was treading on dangerous ground: "I was literally dying inside. And I thought if he gets mad... I don't know what I'm gonna do... I thought I was gonna faint."

Del Castillo's full 20/20 interview is due to air on Friday night (18Mar16).