Trivia / Frida

• Actor-Shared Background: Both Frida Kahlo and Salma Hayek were born in Mexico, though their ethnic heritage is different (see below).
• The Cast Showoff: Salma Hayek did some of the paintings in the movie.
• Dawson Casting: Then mid-30's Salma Hayek plays Frida from when she was a teenager. Inverted as she also plays her until her death at 47.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Alfred Molina gained fifty pounds to play Diego Rivera. And he was still said to be "too attractive" for the part!
• Fake Mixed Race: Frida Kahlo was born to a German father and mestiza (Spanish and Native American) mother. Salma Hayek's father was a Mexican of Christian Lebanese descent, while her mother was a Mexican of Spanish descent. She describes herself as "50% Lebanese and 50% Spanish".
• Fake Nationality:
  • Alfred Molina, a Londoner of Spanish and Italian lineage, plays Mexican Diego Rivera.
  • Australian Geoffrey Rush plays Ukranian Leon Trotsky.
  • American Ashley Judd plays Italian Tina Modotti.
  • Italian Valeria Golino plays Mexican Guadalupe Marín.
  • Spanish Antonio Banderas as Mexican David Alfaro Siqueiros.
  • Welsh Roger Rees plays German Wilhelm Kahlo.
  • Argentine Mía Maestro plays Mexican Cristina Kahlo.
  • Puerto Rican-American Omar Rodríguez plays Frenchman André Breton.
  • French-Cameroonian Karine Plantadit-Bageot plays American Josephine Baker.
• Executive Meddling: Salma Hayek said that Harvey Weinstein demanded that the film include an explicit lesbian sex scene that she hadn't wanted, and alleged that this was solely to indulge his personal sexual fantasies.
• Troubled Production: This was a passion project for Salma Hayek, who went out of her way to pull the film out of Development Hell. Unfortunately, the film wound up being produced by Miramax Films, whose now-disgraced co-founder Harvey Weinstein engaged in habitual sexual harassment and assault towards the actresses he employed, and Hayek avoiding Weinstein's advances and deglamorizing her appearance (including growing a unibrow like that of the real Kahlo) drove the studio boss into a rage. According to her account, Weinstein frequently insulted and yelled at both her and director Julie Taymor on set (they took being called "ball-busters" as a compliment), and was involved in a particularly demeaning instance of Executive Meddling, demanding that Hayek do a lesbian sex scene with full-frontal nudity or else he would pull the plug on the film. Shooting that scene drove Hayek to tears, and to add insult to injury, Weinstein later tried to have the film sent Direct to Video. Hayek and Taymor pushed back and had the film released theatrically, with it receiving six Oscar nominations (and two wins) in the process.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Madonna, a lifelong fan and collector of Kahlo's, lobbied hard for the lead, as did Jennifer Lopez. Marisa Tomei was also considered.
  • Robert De Niro was interested in the role of Diego Rivera when the film was in development.
• Written by Cast Member: Edward Norton did an uncredited rewrite of the script.

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