Salma Hayek Forced Herself out of Her Trailer Everyday for ‘Wild Wild West’ Because She Was Embarrassed
Actor Salma Hayek once teamed up with Will Smith to do the 1999 movie Wild Wild West. And although the film has always been a sore spot for Smith, there were certain aspects about the movie Hayek couldn’t stand herself.
So much so she had to push herself everyday in order to get through the movie.
Salma Hayek didn’t think ‘Wild Wild West’ was interesting when first offered the role
Wild Wild West saw Will smith teaming back up with his Men In Black director Barry Sonnenfeld for the feature. Hayek, who was still rising as a prolific actor in her own right, got a hold of the film’s script thanks to Smith. Initially, Sonnenfeld was hesitant to cast Hayek in the movie. But she left such an impression on Smith that the Oscar-winner advocated for her to be in the feature.
Hayek, however, had her own reservations about doing the movie as well.
“When I first looked at the role, it was not interesting,” Hayek once told The Guardian. “But it was a very big film with good actors and my agent was saying, ‘This is very good, this is going to be a big film.'”
The film didn’t too well critically, but it did help raise the actor’s profile. Hayek was able to use Wild Wild West in combination with her other accomplishments to help her with roles.
“They just offered me a part in a film where it was again three scenes, this Mexican girl, and I said no and they were shocked,” she said. “They couldn’t understand until I said ‘No, because I’m a big shot now, because I am in Wild Wild West and I have, like, 10 covers coming out, and I want a bigger part.’ And then that, they understood.”
Why Salma Hayek was embarrassed shooting ‘Wild Wild West’
Wild Wild West doesn’t have too many fans. Since it first came out, the film has been ravaged by most critics and audiences alike. Even its own star felt that making the movie was a mistake.
“I wanted to win and be the biggest movie star, and what happened was there was a lag – around Wild Wild West time – I found myself promoting something because I wanted to win versus promoting something because I believed in it,” Smith once said according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But Smith wasn’t the only one who had certain issues with the movie. His co-star, Eternals actor Hayek, also once aired her grievances. At least when it came down to the way she was dressed in the Western. In a 2002 interview with IGN, Hayek touched on what it was like being nude for her biographical film Frida. Hayek confided that nudity was of little concern at the time. Especially when she compared being naked to the get-up she wore in West.
“I’ll tell you, there’s nudity in this film but for example I did Wild Wild West and while I was never naked in Wild Wild West I felt a lot more naked and embarrassed wearing that stupid costume. I would have to push myself out of the trailer everyday,” she said. “I cannot tell you how [much more] mortifying that was than actually being completely naked in bed with another woman.”
Salma Hayek once shared her ‘Wild Wild West’ director had a bizarre request
Despite some of her complaints, Hayek confided she still had a good time with the project. It helped that her co-stars and her directors had a sense of humor that constantly made Hayek laugh. At one point, director Sonnenfeld’s humor led to him asking the From Dusk Till Dawn star a bizarre request.
“He tried to convince me the whole movie to smell his left ear, who he claims it smelled like a specific cheese but the other one didn’t,” Hayek once told Yahoo. “And I thought it was the most bizarre thing, just have to rub it, and I said I would not do that. And then at the end of the movie, it’s over, you have to do it, and I did it and it was disgusting. Like he’s been begging for six months, because the movie took six months to make.”
