Salma Hayek tells viewers to dream in the dark
>> As a young girl growing up in Coatzacoalcos, a port city on Mexico’s eastern coast, Salma Hayek lived for Saturday afternoons. “There were only two movie theatres in the town,” the actress recalled, “and on Saturdays they showed movies that children could watch.”
Hayek was a regular, though that came with a fair amount of danger.
“Inside, the normal temperature of the theatre must have been 49C,” she recalled. “There was no air conditioning and people used to faint. I fainted there. They wouldn’t just sell the number of seats — they would pack people into the aisles even if it was a fire hazard.”
Even so, Hayek had the best seat in the house, thanks to her father, who also was a cinema fan.
“He used to carry me in on his shoulders,” Hayek recalled, “and then we would stand in the back. I would watch the entire film from that perch. He would just stand there, although, once in awhile, he would move around because of the rats.”
It doesn’t sound pleasant, but the actress insisted that she misses those days.
“We’re living in a time when human rituals are lagging,” she lamented. “Technology is making them disappear, which is sad. Sitting in a movie theatre in your community is such an important part of our shared humanity. The lights go out and all these people are sharing the same ritual. It’s dark, and then a window opens to take you into the unknown.
“It’s an important reminder to the spirit that anything is possible,” Hayek said. “I learned how to dream in that dark space.”
These days the 50-year-old actress is on screens almost as often as she’s watching them. After starring in the surprise summer hit How to Be a Latin Lover with comedian Eugenio Derbez, and in the indie drama
Beatriz at Dinner (2017), she returned to multiplexes on Friday in the action/comedy
The Hitman’s Bodyguard.
The plot revolves around an elite bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds) who finds himself safeguarding Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson), the world’s most wanted hit man, as he prepares to testify at the International Court of Justice. Natural enemies, they have to swallow their differences and work together if Kincaid is to make it to the trial
As for Hayek, she plays Sonia, Kincaid’s passionate and foul-mouthed wife.
A surprise hit in June, How to be a Latin Lover was filmed on a shoestring budget but has grossed more than $60 million worldwide. Derbez plays a gigolo who comes to live with his sister (Hayek) after being dumped. The film also stars Kristen Bell, Rob Lowe and Raquel Welch.
“Eugenio has been a friend for a long time,” Hayek said. “He’s the greatest guy. When he was working on this project, he told me about it and I thought it would be fun to play his sister. Even if I hadn’t read the script, which was great, I would have said yes. There are some people who really deserve to be successful. Not only are they very talented, but they’re such wonderful people.
The movie isn’t really a handbook on how to be a Latin lover. That’s too bad, because Hayek thinks there are plenty of men out there who could use lessons.
“The worst pickup line somebody screamed at me years ago was, ‘I want to be the meat of your taco,’” she said, grimacing. “It’s not only disgusting, it’s racist!”
Hayek grew up in Coatzacoalcos, where her father was an oil-company executive. Her mother, Diana Jimenez Medina, is an opera singer. At 12 Hayek was sent to New Orleans, where she attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart — until she was expelled for pulling pranks on the nuns. She returned to Mexico, and eventually studied international relations and drama at Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana. After graduation, she decided to pursue acting rather than diplomacy.
She found quick success in Mexico, landing the title role in the Mexican telenovela Teresa, but, instead of building a career in Mexico, Hayek had her eyes on Hollywood. At 24 she moved to Los Angeles and started over.
Initially she found little room to manoeuvre.
“I heard a constant stream of, ‘But this movie doesn’t have a Latina character,’” she recalled. “It was always a case of, ‘There’s nothing for you here.’”
Bit parts on such television shows as Street Justice (1992), HBO’s Dream On (1992) and Nurses (1992) got her started, but her first real break didn’t come until director Robert Rodriguez cast her opposite Antonio Banderas in Desperado (1995). The success of that film opened the door to lead roles in such movies as Rodriguez’s From Dusk till Dawn (1996), the romantic comedy Fools Rush In (1997), Breaking Up (1997), Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1999) and the big-budget Wild Wild West (1999), in which she co-starred with Will Smith.
A personal triumph came when Hayek produced and starred in Frida (2002), a biopic about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. The film was nominated for six Oscars, including a Best Actress nod for Hayek, the first Latin actress to be nominated in that category.
Since then she’s been seen in such films as The Maldonado Miracle (2003), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), After the Sunset (2004), Ask the Dust (2006), Across the Universe (2007), the lowbrow comedy Grown Ups (2010), Oliver Stone’s Savages (2012) and Some Kind of Beautiful (2014).
“At the beginning of my career, there was a horrible sensation within me,” she recalled. “I felt that there really was no way in when it came to Hollywood roles. Now, after about 25 years of acting, I’m so proud of myself that I didn’t give up.”
With houses in Paris, London and the State of Washington, Hayek and Pinault lead a whirlwind life. They have a daughter, nine-year-old Valentina, and Hayek also is stepmother to Pinault’s three older children.
She turned 50 last year, a fact which doesn’t seem to bother her.
“Ageing happens, if you’re very lucky, and you should wear it proudly,” she said. “I’ll let a grey hair creep in there, because I don’t have to impress anyone. My husband and I have been in love for many years and we accept each other.”
Four decades plus and a world away from that rundown theatre in Coatzacoalcos, the actress is still in love with movies and dreaming in the dark.
“When I was a little girl, I saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971),” Hayek recalled. “I said, ‘Wait a minute! In this life, anything can happen. The river can turn into chocolate and the flowers are candy. You can fly into the air and burp yourself down back to earth.’
“You could break every rule — and I never liked rules!”