Dark comedy Beatriz at Dinner nods to immigrant experiences
Salma Hayek’s character clashes with John Lithgow’s Trump-esque billionaire role
Early on in the new film Beatriz at Dinner there’s a squirm-inducing moment — one of many in director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White’s biting social commentary.
Salma Hayek, cast as Beatriz, a healer who’s giving massages at an upscale dinner party, is telling the guests about her career when she’s immediately interrupted by 1-percenter Doug Strutt, played by John Lithgow.
“When I first came to the United States, a long time ago . . . ” she begins. “Did you come legally?” Strutt asks. A long pause follows. “Yes.” Despite the heightening tension in the room, she tries to get back to her point. “I always had inside me the desire to be a healer . . . ”
“Good for you,” he cuts her off again. “You’re working. You’re contributing.”
The dark comedy shines an unforgiving light on such topics as immigration and economic disparity — both issues that are at the forefront of political consciousness in today’s deeply polarized America.
“It’s a story about what it’s like to feel outside of society and about how divided our society is,” Arteta said. “But it’s set in the really relatable and casual environment of a dinner party, something we can all relate to.”
Hayek, whose stunning beauty is semi-successfully muted as Beatriz beneath a frumpy monochromatic outfit and fringe of baby bangs, signed on for the role before the script was even written.
“I have always wanted to work with Miguel and Mike,” she said of the director and screenwriter who had collaborated on such films as Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl. “They approached me with just an idea of what they wanted to do. I don’t care what they would’ve given me, I would’ve done it.”
She spent half a day talking about the film but was told nothing more than that the role in mind was for a masseuse at a dinner party.
“I didn’t even understand how the masseuse was going to fit into the dinner,” she said. “But I would’ve done anything.”
Two weeks later, all her questions were answered.
“It was my birthday and I got an email from Mike that said ‘Happy Birthday’ and the script. He wrote it in two weeks and it’s exactly the script that you see on the screen. And then I fell in love immediately with the character.”
That character is Beatriz, a holistic healer from Mexico who finds herself stranded at her employer’s Newport Beach home just before a very well-to-do dinner party.
“She does not come in with a chip on her shoulder, she’s not somebody that has a complex of inferiority, she’s at dinner with these people that are rich and powerful and sophisticated, but she doesn’t look up to them,” Hayek said.
“She’s just happy to be there, even if it’s by accident. And she makes an effort to understand who they are and doesn’t judge immediately and doesn’t react immediately. And I think that this is something that is really needed today.”
Beatriz’s well-meaning employer, Kathy (Connie Britton), insists she stay for the party, not anticipating that the deeply empathetic Beatriz will butt heads with Strutt, a billionaire real-estate mogul whose attitudes and behaviour may remind some of the U.S. president.
“(White) wrote the script before all this happened, and I never was thinking ‘I’m playing opposite Donald Trump,’ ” Hayek admitted. “It would’ve been unethical to play it from my perspective and not really respect the character.”
Though the film is of the moment, its larger theme is what it feels like to be an outsider in society and the sense of powerlessness that immigrants and others feel.
“Everyone has felt like an outsider at some point and has felt not really seen or underestimated,” said Hayek, whose family is from Mexico.
“Also, most of us have felt the horrible sensation of impotence in front of somebody who is very powerful and very entitled and who is completely unconscious about anything or anyone that doesn’t serve their interests.”