Salma Hayek was told she ‘didn’t have a future’ in Hollywood when she moved to the US at the age of just 24.
The Mexican actress, 54, said she felt it was ‘impossible’ for her to pursue her dream of stardom following a successful acting career in her native country.
Posing for a 1970s-inspired shoot with Wonderland magazine, Salma said that at a time when many actresses in their 50s struggle to find roles, she feels she’s at the ‘best moment in her career.’
Candid: Salma Hayek has revealed she was told she ‘didn’t have a future’ in Hollywood when she moved to the US aged 24, as she posed for a 70s-style shoot with Wonderland magazine
Ahead of the release of her newest film Bliss, Salma told the publication that the role has helped her to reflect on her own rise to success, after moving to the States 30 years earlier.
She said: ‘I remember when I got to the United States they told me I didn’t have a future. At the time it really was something impossible.
‘It was not logical that I could have a career, it sounded like something stupid that I was doing after having a career in my country and coming here.
‘Then on top of it, being a woman working in your fifties you are the grandmother; you would work here and there, almost nothing… And now, that’s not the case. I’m at the best moment in my career and I get to do cool films.’
Tough: The Mexican actress said she felt it was ‘impossible’ for her to pursue her dream of stardom following a successful acting career in her native country
Hard: ‘It was not logical that I could have a career, it sounded like something stupid that I was doing after having a career in my country and coming here,’ she said
Screen star: Salma’s biggest breakout role in Hollywood came in the 1995 film Desperado opposite Antonio Banderas (pictured in the film)
Salma’s biggest breakout role in Hollywood came in the 1995 film Desperado opposite Antonio Banderas, and she went onto land an Oscar nomination in 2002 for her performance as artist Frida Kahlo.
She is set to appear in the sci-fi film Bliss as a beautiful woman who tries to convince a man down on his luck, played by Owen Wilson that the entire world is a simulation.
It’s one of three films she’ll star in this year after many Hollywood productions were delayed by the Covid pandemic, with Marvel’s Eternals and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard set for release later in 2021.
The Oscar nominee also praised the historic election of Vice President Kamala Harris, after campaigning for members of the Latinx community to vote during the Covid pandemic.
Confident: Salma said that at a time when many actresses in their 50s struggle to find roles, she feels she’s at the ‘best moment in her career
Salma, who married businessman François-Henri Pinault in 2009, said Kamala’s position has made even her more hopeful for the future after watching the election coverage with her teenage daughter Valentina, 13.
Alongside her interview Salma posted in a collection of 1970s-inspired looks, including an eye-catching pink sequinned dress, an oversized brown fur coat and a sharp mint green blazer and pale pink shirt.
It comes after Salma admitted she’s ‘offended’ by assumptions she married her husband François-Henri because of his billion dollar fortune.
The Kering CEO and president of Groupe Artémis is believed to boast an estimated net worth of $33.2billion.
Read the full interview in Wonderland, on sale now
On their romance, the screen star told Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast: ‘You know the thing is that in pictures you cannot begin to guess the magic in him. He’s made me become a much better person, and grow in such a good, healthy way.
‘And you know when I married him, everybody said, ”Oh, it’s an arranged marriage, she married him for the money. I’m like, ”Yeah, whatever, b****.” Think what you want: 15 years together, and we are strong in love.’
The producer acknowledged that some people marry for money but she thinks rich men are subjected to ‘discrimination’ that makes them deemed unworthy of real love.
Salma explained: ‘Immediately you think because somebody’s rich, [they] might not be a good person.
‘Might be somebody materialistic, might be somebody that doesn’t have values, might be somebody that is even stupid or that doesn’t deserve it. In order to have a lot of money, you did it the wrong way, there is all this preconception.’
Read the full interview in Wonderland Magazine, on sale now.
’15 years together, and we are strong in love’: It comes after Salma said she’s ‘offended’ by assumptions she married husband François-Henri Pinault because of his billion dollar fortune