How ‘movie maid’ rose to movie star Hayek
SALMA Hayek is a Hollywood star of two decades’ standing but says she encountered a lot of prejudice when she arrived in Los Angeles.
“I had things said to me that you would not believe,” she said. Mexican actresses were good for playing temptresses and housekeepers, not much else. She recalled an executive at a major studio telling her she would struggle to find leading roles because “the moment you open your mouth, you remind everyone of their maid”.
Hayek said: “They would consider me for prostitute, but never lead prostitute.” She recalled sitting in her apartment with a rail of designer clothes brought from home, but no money for food. It’s no coincidence that her first major English-speaking role, in the 1995 western Desperado, came via Robert Rodriguez, a Mexican-American director.
That’s why Donald Trump’s characterisation of Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers during the US presidential campaign hasn’t shocked her. “If we can find something positive about the Trump campaign, it’s that it has painted a clear picture of what America really is. How divided it is, and how much more racism there is than many white people expected.”
Hayek seems so keenly attuned to the politics and cultural dimensions of her craft that appearing in Tale of Tales, by Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, makes perfect sense. A strange, sumptuous fairytale culled from the writings of 17th-century Neapolitan poet Giambattista Basile, it stars Hayek as a childless queen who falls pregnant after eating the heart of a sea dragon. (Hayek and her husband, French luxury goods billionaire FrançoisHenri Pinault, became parents to daughter Valentina in 2007, presumably via conventional means.)
In one memorable scene, we see Hayek, cheeks sauced with blood, tearing chunks out of the giant organ with her teeth.
Some of her other recent film choices, however — not least the Adam Sandler buddy comedy Grown Ups and its sequel — seem a little less intuitive.
What does she get out of such movies? For one thing, she said, feeling pressured to work kept her sane. She and her husband maintained separate finances, so her employees relied on her to stay busy.
“I don’t have some sugar daddy financing my career. That would be the most humiliating thing.”
But for another, she just enjoys making them. “These movies can be bad, or not work, or nobody might see them. But what about the time I spent doing them? Did I learn something? Did I have fun? Did I spend time with my family and friends? Maybe it’s not very professional, but it’s life. It’s Mexican. It’s family.” — © The Sunday Telegraph, London