"How I would describe my characters is absolutely different from how I would describe myself."
Salma Hayek Pinault (born Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez, September 2, 1966 in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico) is a Mexican-American actress, producer and director of Spanish and Lebanese ancestry.
She is best known for her roles in such movies as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Dogma, Frida (for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress), Bandidas, and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. She also had a recurring role on 30 Rock as one of Jack Donaghy's girlfriends. In 2004 she earned a Daytime Emmy Award for directing the Showtime TV movie The Maldonado Miracle.
She is married to French businessman François-Henri Pinault, and they have one daughter, Valentina, born in 2007.
Salma Hayek's Films with Pages on this Wiki:
- Midaq Alley as Alma
- Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico as Carolina.
- From Dusk Till Dawn as Santanico Pandemonium.
- Dogma as Serendipity.
- Fled as Cora.
- Mi Vida Loca as Gata.
- Fair Game as Rita.
- Frida as Frida Kahlo.
- The Faculty as Nurse Rosa Harper.
- Bandidas as Sara Sandoval.
- Fools Rush In as Isabel Fuentes Whitman.
- Wild Wild West as Rita Escobar.
- Lonely Hearts as Martha Jule Beck.
- Puss in Boots and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as Kitty Softpaws (voice).
- Traffic as Rosario (uncredited).
- Ask The Dust as Camilla.
- Across the Universe as the Singing Nurse.
- Everly as Everly.
- Ugly Betty as Sofia Reyes.
- Grown Ups as Roxanne Chase-Feder.
- Sausage Party as Teresa del Taco (voice).
- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant as Madame Truska.
- Savages as Elena.
- Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over as Francesca Giggles.
- 30 Rock as Elisa Padriera.
- Tale of Tales as the Queen of Longtrellis.
- The Hitman's Bodyguard and The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard as Sonia Kinkaid.
- Bliss as Isabel Clemens.
- Eternals as Ajak.
- House of Gucci as Giuseppina "Pina" Auriemma.
- Magic Mike's Last Dance as Maxandra "Max" Mendoza.
Tropes Associated with Salma Hayek's roles:
- Ability over Appearance: Satanico Pandemonium in From Dusk Till Dawn was written as a white woman called Blonde Death. On seeing Desperado, Quentin Tarantino changed the character to a Latina so that Salma could play it.
- Action Girl: She owns multiple men twice her size in the few scenes she has in The Hitman's Bodyguard.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: She took a role in Tale of Tales because she saw it as the only chance to play a Queen in her career."I'm Mexican. The closest thing I've ever gotten is playing the queen of a drug cartel."
- Beauty Inversion:
- For Frida, she grew out a monobrow to match the real Frida Kahlo.
- Kind of in Cirque du Freak, where she plays a Circus performer that can grow a beard by magic, but is otherwise very beautiful.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: How Liz Lemon evaluates Jack's girlfriend Elisa (Hayek) on 30 Rock.Liz: If I had knockers like that, I'd be thanking God too.
- The Cameo:
- She pops up in the film adaptation of Traffic (2000), and in Across the Universe (2007).
- She also shows up in Muppets Most Wanted, playing Straight Man to Gonzo and his "indoor running of the bulls." Much to her chagrin.
- Fake Nationality:
- In the movie version of In the Time of the Butterflies, she plays Minerva Mirabal, a Dominican revolutionary.
- In 30 Rock, she plays the Puerto Rican nurse Elisa Pedrera.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Ask the Dust has her character die of TB.
- Missing Episode: Follow Me Home, filmed in 1996, still looking for a distributor.
- Ms. Fanservice: In many of her films, even when sporting the unibrow in Frida and just as often poking fun/using her beauty to get ahead, i.e. Serendipity charming idiots into overtipping her during her striptease in Dogma. The main film which does not emphasize fanservice from her at all is the brutal and violent Everly.
- Production Posse: She's been directed by Robert Rodriguez in Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, and the Showtime movie Roadracers.
- Playing Against Type:
- Salma once played a mild mannered school nurse in The Faculty, who spent most of her screen time in a modest white coat and suffering from a cold.
- It was unusual to see her cast as The Muse Serendipity in Dogma.
- Spicy Latina: One of the most iconic examples. Watch her performances in Fools Rush In and The Hitman's Bodyguard for the most prevalent examples. Dogma is a downplayed example, due to her character being more along the lines of The Smart Guy and thus cooler-headed.
- Star-Making Role: Desperado put her on the map in the 90s (Hollywood-wise, she had been a minor star in Mexico beforehand). One could also argue that Frida helped her be respected as an actress.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Her character in Fools Rush In gets one in a one-night stand with Matthew Perry's character.
- What Could Have Been:
- The studio wanted Cameron Diaz for the role of Carolina in Desperado, although Salma was who Robert Rodriguez really wanted. Sony made her audition multiple times just to prove her talent, as she was unknown in Hollywood, and she won the part.
- She was really keen to be in a 1993 adaptation of The House Of Spirits but was even denied an audition.
"They were not hiring Latinos for Latino roles. They were not hiring Latinos period — unless it was the maid or the prostitute. And that part was not a maid or a prostitute.”- She was the first choice for the eponymous role in Selena. She turned it down, saying it was too soon after the real Selena's death, and she would be too overcome to play it. The role went to Jennifer Lopez and became her breakout. The opposite would happen with Wild Wild West, where Salma got a role previously offered to Jennifer Lopez.
- She was in the running for the role of Alicia Larde in A Beautiful Mind, as the real woman was from El Salvador. They gave the character a Race Lift to be played by Jennifer Connelly instead.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: In From Dusk Till Dawn, and also in Dogma.
