the US and so many people have died but America does nothing. They are in Iraq, the Middle East and North Korea, but what about their next-door neighbours?’ Hayek might have another motive for taking the role. The daughter of a Lebanese oil executive, she was kidnapped as a teenager with a fellow student for nine hours. It is perhaps apt that Hayek ended up in a world defined by luxury. ‘My mother and grandmother were very elegant,’ she says. ‘They had these hourglass figures, with full bosoms and tiny waists. My grandmother looked and acted like a Hollywood star.’ Legend has it that as a child Hayek was given a pet tiger as a present. ‘It was an ocelot!’ she counters, popping a dumpling in her mouth. ‘Can you imagine? His name was Rambo and he was the sweetest cat. He was very tame. A cat for protection…’ As a young girl, Hayek wrote and directed plays for her family and friends, and in 1988 she dropped out of university to become an actor. She was soon cast in one of Mexico’s most successful telenovelas (soaps), Teresa, and by the time she was 23, she had become a national obsession. She felt it was time to escape so, at 24, she arrived in LA as an unknown Mexican actor, where she studied with Stella Adler; her fellow pupils included Benicio del Toro (her co-star in Savages). But she was told again and again that no one would cast her – no audience would pay to see an actor, however talented or beautiful, who sounded like their maid. ‘When I saw The Artist, I really related to it,’ she says, raising a brow. ‘That would have been a great part for me. You know, Dolores del Rio was Mexican and a huge star in the late Twenties, and when sound came in no one would hire her because of her accent. She had to go back to Mexico. And since the time of Dolores del Rio, there hadn’t been another Mexican actress who got leading roles, until me.’ Although Hayek’s film career has been, by her own admission, a little patchy – from movies such as Dogma and Timecode to Grown Ups and the role of Kitty Softpaws in Puss in Boots – her very existence in film in the 1990s opened the gateway to Hollywood for other Latin actresses. But being a pioneer has never been easy, despite her inimitable fighting spirit. It was not until she was spotted by another Latin industry figure, director Rodriguez, on a Spanish-language chat show, speaking out in true Hayek style about how Mexican actresses didn’t get work in Hollywood, that she got her first break. ‘She was amazing,’ says Rodriguez. ‘I knew that she was the star. I was looking for Latin actors for a film called Desperado with Antonio Banderas. But the studio wouldn’t take her on because she had never worked in English before, so I had to shoot a whole film [Roadracers, 1994] with her to convince them to let her do a screen test. When it came to From Dusk Till Dawn, Tarantino wrote the part for Madonna, but then I suggested, since it was set in Mexico, that he rewrite it for Salma. Unfortunately, she was completely afraid of snakes, but I said, “If you don’t start touching these snakes, this part will go to Madonna.” She got over the fear pretty quickly.’ Although Hayek’s turns in Rodriguez’s cult Mariachi trilogy made an impact, being cast as a bombshell CONTINUED ON PAGE 235
‘I always wanted to be a mother. But I was clear I shouldn’t go around desperately looking for the father of my children’
A BRILLIANT MIND Stretch velvet dress, about £2,170, Zac Posen. Yellow gold and diamond necklace; yellow gold and peridot ring, both from a selection, Cartier. See Stockists for details. Hair by Chris McMillan at Solo Artists. Make-up by Genevieve Herr at Sally Harlour. Manicure by Donna D at Artists by Timothy Priano
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