She is part Mexican, part Arab, part American. For her, money is transient, a career is a convention, appearance is secondary, age is a relative category, and the power of emotions over us is exaggerated … Meeting with Salma Hayek, who firmly stands her ground in a world where everything is changeable.
She’s small and muscular and a real star – at least she literally shines. She has bright skin, shining eyes, smooth shiny hair. Her gestures and gaze are quick, her whole image does not imply discrepancies: this woman is a bundle of energy, she is tireless and does not allow anyone or anything to take her by surprise. During a telephone conversation, she, without thinking for a second, made an appointment for me at a restaurant on the beach. Quite far from Los Angeles. But not at all because he is afraid of the paparazzi, but because this restaurant has a particularly beautiful view of the ocean. And she cannot live without the ocean. She grew up on the coast, and the ocean is that childhood attachment that she never parted with. The place here is unpretentious in terms of cuisine, but the view … The view is exceptional even for the expanses of Southern California. “That’s it! Hayek supports my observation. “The ocean is real here. It has only one shore – the one on which we are with you … I love to look at the ocean, I love to go into it, I love its depth – I’m a diver. You almost don’t feel gravity in the ocean water.” She took off her sunglasses, as if she was afraid they would prevent her from seeing the ocean for what it was. The whole Salma Hayek is in this gesture: she strives to see the world as it is, she is indifferent to myths, glorification, universal rules. However, the force of gravity is perhaps the only rule that she cannot break.
Psychologies: You are capable of decisive action: you gave up a career as a TV star in Mexico for an obscure prospect in Hollywood, turned down roles for your own production activities, and finally became a mother at 41… What do you think your life will be like in ten years?
Salma Hayek: Yes, I absolutely do not think about it! The future is a mystery to me and must remain so. Because I treat life as a place where hidden forces act, where everything is possible and everything is unexpected.
But there are also objective factors that tell the future some signs. Age, for example. You are 42 today…
S. H.: Age will close any opportunities for me? Certainly. But will open others. I’m not afraid of getting old, I’m not going to fight for youth, worry about aging skin. People obsessed with age live as if they are in prison. Tirelessly monitor the period of “imprisonment”. And the main relationship in which they stay is the relationship with their own age. What a pitiful state of affairs! But for me there is no difference, 25 or 45. For me, there is only this current year and this age. His secrets and his discoveries. Escape from old age is akin to the fatal struggle of our contemporaries for thinness, which modern standards of beauty insist on. I believe that the obsession with external requirements is the main tragedy of women. When I was waiting for Valentine, I became huge. It just got better. But I liked pregnancy, I liked the state of expectation of what is clearly one of the most important things in life. I was happy and thought: if this is necessary for the child, then everything is fine. We have been given such a body that we can create a new life and therefore be almost on a par with God, but in fact it is our body that we are afraid of, and ashamed of, and obsessed with its perfection …
Joke with a beard
Like many realists, Salma Hayek is a born comedian. She manages to realize her eccentric talent in almost every, even tragic role. And comedies with her are simply unforgettable. Who can forget her muse Serendipity from Dogma by Kevin Smith? Thanks to director Paul Witz, next year we’ll see Hayek in the “family fantasy horror” Freak Circus as a bearded woman in a tumultuous (but not bloody) romance with a vampire. The film is based on the book of horror stories for children by Darren Shan, famous in the English-speaking world.
V. B.
Are you ashamed too?
S. H.: What makes me different from other women? Every time I have to appear in public, it’s stressful. I have to smile to millions of eyes, but I have no time for smiles. How does my dress fit? Decently? Elegantly? Will cosmetics float? We are programmed from youth to wage war on ourselves for being considered pretty. As, in fact, for happiness. After all, you must become happy, and in a certain way. You are obliged to make a career, be thin and well-groomed, married to a successful man and also have children, better – brilliantly gifted. And if at least one element from the kit fell out, that’s it, you’re a loser. As a result, when you meet your happiness, you will not notice it, you will not recognize it – it does not correspond to the prescribed configuration! Moreover: God help women who have achieved all of the above – this is exactly what they are not forgiven for.
Do you hate standards?
S. H.: To hell with them all! Along with the standard of weight, they will also begin to dictate the standard of height to us! I know what it is: all my childhood I suffered because I was short – only 157 cm. In Mexico, it was generally believed that it was right to be a tall, fair-eyed blonde. What has a class-ethnic explanation: we are a mestizo people, the fruit of colonization, and to be tall and fair-haired means to belong to the colonial Europeans, and not to the Indians, black and small, to the winners, and not to the vanquished.
But you, beauty, hardly suffered from this!
S. H.: I say that in no way was considered a beauty! Dark-skinned brunette and shorter than everyone in the class. It was even suggested to us that short stature is a pathological deformation of the skeleton, can you imagine? I suffered – I was teased. Dad put my brains in my place. I was about 13 years old, I come from school, I tell that they tease me, and he says very calmly: “It seems to me that the mind is not measured from the heels to the top of the head, the mind is measured from the top of the head to infinity.” I somehow immediately calmed down – I realized what really matters and what does not. And you have to decide what you are looking for in life. Do you want happiness or do you want to be liked?
What imprint did the environment in which you grew up, the privileged layer of society, leave on you?
S. H.: The thing was getting ridiculous. I was 12, and through a scandal, almost a hunger strike, I still convinced my parents to send me to study in the USA, to a Catholic school. But I didn’t stay there long. Firstly, I ran away and traveled around the neighborhood, and secondly … You see, I didn’t know how to take care of myself, how to make a bed, how to wash – I’m from a rich Mexican family, I always had maids! So I found myself a maid among the junior nuns. And when the older sisters found out about this, they kicked me out. In general, I grew up in a very religious family – my father is an Arab, but a Catholic by religion, his parents came from Lebanon, because there, with the growth of Islam, it became difficult to maintain one’s faith. But I soon realized that religion (the church, but not faith!) Is one of the ways to manipulate a person. And for me, at the age of ten, it became impossible to be an object of manipulation. As a result, I went to church under a family escort. Then she began to seriously engage in artistic gymnastics, and when it came to choosing sports as a career, her father opposed, said: I will not allow my daughter to deprive me of my childhood. I screamed, cried, but he stood to death … I don’t know, maybe because I really didn’t want to part with my child, because I would have to leave home. Or because he wanted to extend his responsibility for me, to protect me from mistakes … Or maybe it was just accepted that way: the man decides.
Did the dominance of men accepted in your childhood, upbringing in this spirit somehow affect your life?
S. H.: For sure! In any case, I have long been convinced: I need a stronger man. And besides, I probably always tried to avoid male domination on my territory, in the space of my life. Even if the man certainly dominated my mind! That is, this wild doctrine that is still driven into the head of women – that they are nothing until there is a man in their life – has never worked for me. I have always been convinced that relationships that are worth something are possible only if I stand firmly on my feet. You can develop only if you evaluate yourself, and do not look at yourself through the eyes of another, even a loved one.
You married the father of your daughter only a year after her birth …
S. H.: I am cool on the official side of the issue. You see, for many, marriage is a confirmation that you are appreciated. No marriage means that they do not appreciate. And in general, love, the power of the erotic over us is so exaggerated! You know, I’ve entered that phase of life where the sentimental part – the intense romance, the courtship, all those mating dances of males and females – is no longer what drives relationships. Now I see an exciting intensity in a different kind of contact. And I am experiencing a much more interesting romance – with life itself.
And now you actively oppose domestic violence?
S. H.: Yes, because its cause is largely in the women themselves – one in three Americans suffer from domestic violence, and this comes from the standards that have ingrained in us since childhood. Why do so many women underestimate themselves? I try to help such women, maybe out of selfishness – out of a desire to understand …
Do you consider yourself accomplished, influential, strong?
S. H.: Yes, I was much stronger when I came to Hollywood from Mexico, no connections, no residence permit, that’s when I was really strong! I knew English in the restaurant volume, as a girl from a wealthy Mexican family can know it. And in Los Angeles, I realized how limited my English is. And that it will not only be difficult to learn – no, it will be impossible to learn it. I will always have this accent with which I am speaking to you now. Because of him, everyone in the USA told me as one: Salma, don’t even expect serious roles, because your accent will always remind both the producer and the viewer of their maid, the nanny of their children, the cashier in the supermarket. Who will give you a decent role? But the question of whether I can become an actress in Hollywood did not even arise for me.
Private bussiness
- 1966 September 2 in Mexico in the city of Coatzalcoalcos, in the family of Sami Hayek, the director of an oil company, and Diana Jimenez, an opera singer, Salma Valgarma was born (her brother Sami was born 9 years later).
- 1978 Sent to a Catholic school in Louisiana (USA), from where she was expelled two years later.
- 1983 Studying at the Iberoamerican University (Mexico City), dropping out after a year.
- 1989 The title role in the television series “Teresa” makes her a star.
- 1991 Studied at the famous Stella Adler acting school (Los Angeles, USA).
- 1993 First role in Hollywood – in the film “My Mad Life” by Allison Enders.
- 1995 Role in “Desperate” by Robert Rodriguez (later she will star in his films “From Dusk Till Dawn”, “Faculty”, “Spy Kids”, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and the almanac “4 Rooms”).
- 1997 On the set of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Peter Medaka begins a personal relationship with actor Edward Etterton.
- 1999 “Dogma” by Kevin Smith; begins a serious relationship with actor Edward Norton (they will be together for four years).
- 2001 Establishes his own film production company, Ventanarosa.
- 2002 Starring and producing Julie Taymor’s Frida (Oscar nominee); establishes the Salma Hayek Foundation to help women in difficult circumstances.
- 2003 Debuts in film directing with the film “Miracle of Maldonado”; romance with actor Josh Lucas.
- 2006 “Ask the Dust” by Robert Tone; The Lonely Hearts by Todd Robinson; producer and actress in the series “Ugly Betty”, which became a hit on US TV; begins a partnership with French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, head of the fashion company Gucci.
- 2007 Birth of daughter Valentina Paloma.
- 2009 Marries Pino; roles in the sitcom 30 Rock and the film Freak Circus by Paul Witz.
Have you thought about returning home?
S. H.: I had nowhere to return to. There was no film industry in Mexico. I became a television, “soap” star there very quickly and began to generate income. And when you are profitable, no one wonders what kind of actress you are, whether you are good. I had to find out what kind of actress I was, I wanted to act in films and therefore went to the Mecca of cinema. Yes, there were moments of despair and rage and self-pity. And the money ran out… But I started working. And even gained fame. And suddenly I realized: I don’t like what I do and the roles that I play. I didn’t go to Hollywood for them, not for fame. This was not my dream. And then I realized how to distinguish the fulfillment of a dream from just success. When the process of work is more important for you than the result, when you enjoy the process, the dream has come true. And if you are waiting for the result, you are working for the dreams of someone else, not your own. That’s all.
What resolved your doubts?
S. H.: Not what, but who. A call from Elizabeth, wife and producer Robert Rodriguez. She offered a role in Desperado… which I blew! Well, almost failed…
Perhaps you are the only one in the world who appreciates this role of yours in this way.
S. H.: That’s what competence means! But, in general, everything was more than serious. I couldn’t play a frank love scene: I burst into tears on every take. Instead of the planned hour, the shooting took eight. Robert was beside himself, convinced, shouted, then hissed that he would kick me out and not blink an eye. He called me a muslin maiden… And he was right. But there was no way I could get naked in front of the camera, the film crew and millions of viewers in the future. Could not! I saw my father and brother in front of me. And grandmother. Everything in me protested. The power of education. All her conscious life she despised the Catholic hypocrisy in relation to the body, but all the same, education is sometimes stronger than understanding. Even my success in Desperado scared me. A film came out, I read reviews, and there: Salma Hayek is a sex bomb. I can’t say that I am delighted with such an assessment. Evaluation on the scale of sexuality is an underestimation of personality. But trying to overcome your upbringing is sometimes necessary. If you want to expand your world, you must take steps beyond the territory that was once assigned to you.
What territory are you going to assign to your daughter? How are you raising her?
S. H.: And this is what I’m not going to do. I will not raise her. I live next to her and will live. I will help her explore the world. I will be a knowledgeable guide, not a dictator. Yes, she herself is a little dictator. This is already obvious: he insists on his own, bends everyone into a ram’s horn. And I think that’s good. It is bad when a person is ready to bend. I’m going to confront it as necessary and as if to symbolize the natural barriers of life. And she does not intend to engage in parenting pedagogy. I don’t want to litter the playground of her experience.
Have you ever been guided by material or career considerations?
S. H.: I’m from a rich family! I am comfortable with money. For me, a career is the maximum realization of abilities and opportunities. After The Desperate, I was offered a lot of roles. But I was not left with a feeling of some kind of slippage, ineptly wasted time and energy. And then I remembered the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, about how I was shocked by her image at the age of 14. I took her album off the shelf, carefully examined the pictures familiar from childhood. I didn’t see anything new in them. Because Frida is all in them, to the end, and enters you completely and immediately, whenever you see her work – whether as a child or an adult. Because she was never afraid to be herself. She insisted that she had every right to be the way she was. Even its shortcomings almost cultivated. The unibrows, the mustache… I got angry. And she said to herself: how could you fall into such a trap? Are you going to die as a “sex bomb”? So I decided: if there are no roles for Mexicans like me, then I will create these roles myself. Became a producer. Made Frida.
So you are convinced that determination knows no barriers?
S. H.: You know, there was such a Nobel laureate in physics, Werner Heisenberg. So, he argued that observation deforms the object – something like this. That is, by looking at something, you change it. I like to think so, even if it seems unbelievable.