SALMA’S SECRETS
THE MEXICAN BEAUTY IS NOW BUSIER THAN EVER AND LOVING IT
The advice the actress ignored
When Salma Hayek first arrived in Hollywood at the age of 24, she was told she’d never work there because she was Mexican and her accent was too strong.
Then when she did start to land film roles, she was told, “Save your money, your career will be over at 35.”
Now 50, the Frida star is glad she didn’t listen to the warnings and advice. “I’m working more than ever,” she tells. “The best parts are women in their mid-30s and up.”
She has made 10 films in the past two years, including Beatriz at Dinner, which was a big hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and her busy schedule shows no sign of slowing down. But it wasn’t always this way.
She’d had a successful career in Mexico before deciding to try her luck in Los Angeles, but found that counted for nothing.
“You could not get a job if you were Mexican. The people I was auditioning for would make fun of Mexico and frankly, would make fun of me too. It was humiliating.”
A studio executive once told her, “When you open your mouth, they’ll be reminded of the maid. You’ll never be a leading lady.”
But then she got her big breakthrough, cast opposite Antonio Banderas in the action film Desperado, which became a cult classic. Bigger roles began trickling in, including From Dusk to Dawn with George Clooney and Fools Rush In with Matthew Perry. Between movies, she worked tirelessly on her own project – bringing the story of artist Frida Kahlo to the big screen.
It took eight years and a lot of hustling, but the movie Frida was finally made in 2002, to great acclaim. It earned Salma a Best Actress Oscar nomination and it looked like her days of struggling were over.
“But nothing changed for me,” she says. “They offered me exactly the same roles they were offering me before. As a matter of fact, I stopped working for a while. I went through a depression during that period of time.”
Never one to stay down for long, Salma decided to produce another of her own projects, which ended up becoming the successful TV series Ugly Betty.
She gets a lot more respect now, but says she still has to fight to be paid as much as her male colleagues, because “the only jobs where women don’t get paid less than men are pornography and modelling.
“The amount of pressure on women now is crazy. You have to be much better than your male colleagues, just so you can maybe try and get the same salary as them. And you still have to be a good wife and mother. And now you also have to be skinny, and you have to look 20 when you’re 40. It’s too much.“
Salma did not become a wife
and mother until she was in her early 40s. She had her daughter Valentina (9) in 2007 and 18 months later married French fashion magnate Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of the company that owns the fashion brands Gucci,
Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.
They live in London but also have a home in the countryside near Paris, which Salma says is her happy place. “I like the outdoors. I love gardens, plants, trees. I’ll go for a hike or take a run.”
Another great love is soccer, but these days, she usually watches from home because she gets too carried away when she’s at a game. “At home, I can drink my beer, be in my pyjamas and insult them in Spanish, English or French.”
It’s hard to imagine Salma looking anything but glamorous. She looks incredible for her age, but admits she doesn’t lead the healthiest of lifestyles.
She says she’s been tired since becoming a mum.
“I wake up tired, I go to sleep tired and somewhere in between, I get a second wind where I feel energetic, then I crash again.”
She does wonder if there might come a day when “I do that Botox thing that I’m so against. But then I go, ‘Wait a minute, I still have some beauty credit.’”
By that she means there are things she could do to be more healthy – like sleeping and exercising more, as well as quitting smoking and drinking less. “So that’s my card I’m holding – maybe that will count as a couple of Botox injections!”
‘ The only jobs where women don’t get paid less than men are pornography and modelling’