Salma Hayek Once Felt That Hollywood Didn’t Want Her Anymore
Actor Salma Hayek has always been very candid about her issues in Hollywood. And there came a point where the veteran wondered if Hollywood didn’t see her as useful anymore.
Salma Hayek once shared Hollywood didn’t want her as much as she approached her 40s
Hayek was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors at one point. She got her breakthrough role with the 1995 feature Desperado, and hasn’t looked back since. But a lot started changing as Hayek got older. While nearing her 40s, Hayek felt she was getting offered less roles than she was used to.
“I think they don’t want me but I don’t really care,” Hayek once said according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hayek confided that she was finding more fulfilling work to occupy her time with, and indulging in other passions aside from acting.
“I’ve been getting awards from different places for the humanitarian work and I’ve had a lot of movies come out. Then there is my husband also who takes me to many places. There’s that stuff too and I’ve just been busy with life,” she said.
Hayek was also busy at the time with her duties as a mother. She and her husband Francois-Henri Pinault are parents to Valentina Pinault, who took priority for the Frida star. This was especially important for Hayek, as she felt turning 40 was difficult knowing she didn’t have a child yet.
“You don’t look as bad as you thought you were going to look. You don’t feel as old as you thought you were going to feel. It’s a myth. Forties are full of life,” she said. “The only thing that is tough about the 40s is when you haven’t had a child. This is awful.”
Salma Hayek considered quitting acting to focus more on motherhood
After giving birth, Hayek seriously considered giving up acting. She wanted to focus all of her energies on raising her daughter and taking care of her family. But her husband discouraged Hayek against the idea, feeling that she wouldn’t be truly happy if she went that route.
“I said, ‘I don’t think I want to work anymore,’ and it was François who said, ‘Oh, no, you’re going back to work.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to.’ ‘Well, you have to,’” Hayek remembered in an interview with Allure. “’We’re not putting up with some lazy girl in the house. That’s not who I married.’ And then he said something so beautiful: ‘I don’t want to be deprived of your work. I want to watch it, too. And the world has not seen the best of you yet. So you cannot stop until some of that is put out.’ So he sort of really pushed me, like, ‘Get up on your feet and get out there.’ And he was right.”
Salma Hayek started to not take acting seriously until this movie came along
What might’ve made quitting acting even easier for Hayek was that she stopped taking the profession seriously. But while she was mulling her retirement, Hayek was offered a role in the Oliver Stone feature Savages. She played the cartel leader Elena in the film, which was one of the reasons why she was brought out of her acting slump.
“Roles like Elena don’t come along frequently. I didn’t want to do another movie to be honest. Francois convinced me of that. Actually I quit acting,” she once told Vogue (via NDTV).
Even though Hayek had become disillusioned with acting, she didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to work with Stone. So much so that Hayek would’ve done the film regardless of her character.
“If at all I just wanted to do it for fun. I didn’t take it that seriously anymore. And then he [Stone] came. To be honest even if I didn’t like the part I still would have said yes just to work with Oliver,” she said.
