Salma Hayek gushes about new ‘Beatriz at Dinner’ film
Let’s be presumptuous for a minute. When you think “Salma Hayek,” you probably don’t think “thoughtful chamber drama.” What you are likely to think is ombshell, romantic interest, Frida Kahlo or voice actress with a set of pipes that can melt butter.
That will change after you see “Beatriz at Dinner.”
That’s thanks to a tailor-made leading role courtesy of director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White (both of “The Good Girl,” HBO’s “Enlightened” and other film and TV projects). Hayek, 50, stars as a Mexican immigrant masseuse stranded at a highclass dinner party with an assortment of one-percenters, and the revelations, confrontations and micro-aggressions that pepper the evening gradually build to a breaking point.
Hayek called recently to discuss the film that was written especially for her, and her enthusiasm for the project was audible and infectious. QUESTION: This is such a unique movie with a big heart. How did it come to be?
ANSWER: Miguel and Mike, I’m a huge fan, and they know it. They called me and said can we hang out, we want to talk to you, have dinner. … They came, we hung out, they were picking my brain, they were investigating me, just about my life, about who I am. Mike said I have an idea for you – they knew me very well, it’s not like the first time I met them – for a movie we want you to be a part of. I thought it was a small part.
Did the 21st century peak early for filmmaking? “There Will Be Blood” makes a strong case. Paul Thomas Anderson’s primal story about America’s Western expansion — and the greed, bloodshed and obsession that traveled with its prospectors — is something biblical in force. Old Testament, on account of Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as a rapacious oilman whose humanity is
“How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?” the posters asked. The answer? Very carefully. The Production Code was still censoring movies with a heavy hand when Stanley Kubrick undertook the seemingly impossible task of adapting Vladimir Nabokov’s infamous book, in which middle-aged pedophile Humbert Humbert (James Mason) becomes infatuated with young nymphette Lolita — whose mother he then marries so he can be close to her. Kubrick handles the skin-crawling details through masterful insinuation.