Salma Hayek, the Oscar-nominated Mexican actress, director and producer turns 50 today!
The stunning Mexican-American actress is famous for her radiant, seemingly ageless appearance. She’s happy to share beauty tips, especially when it comes to her new line of cosmetics for CVS, Nuance, but they’re not the tips you might expect from a Hollywood beauty guru. She’s not a fan of Botox or running on the treadmill, and she says she’ll never, ever wash her face in the morning.
She first made a splash on television with her appearance in the 1989 telenovela “Teresa” and then in Mexican film with her starring role in the critically acclaimed 1995 picture “El callejon de los milagros” (Midaq Alley).
That latter film was a springboard to even greater success in Hollywood with “Desperado,” a 1995 movie in which Hayek played the love interest of Antonio Banderas’ character, and “From Dusk Till Dawn,” a 1996 black comedy film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino in which she leveraged her curvy figure to land the part of the sexy, snake-dancing vampire Santanico Pandemonium.
Salma Hayek (Photo: latino.foxnews.com)
The actress later showed her versatility with, among many other projects, her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in the 2002 biopic “Frida”; and her role in “La chispa de la vida” (As Luck Would Have It), a 2011 Spanish drama film for which she picked up a Goya Award best-actress nomination.
Hayek also has forged a path as a producer, most notably of the American comedy-drama television series “Ugly Betty” and the 2014 animated film “The Prophet,” adapted from Kahlil Gibran’s book.
“I’m excited, turning 50 didn’t cause sadness or anxiety. It’;s a nice number, I think when I was younger I thought that at 50 you’re already old. I don’t feel old at all. I have high hopes to do more things in my life”; says a relaxed Salma without a drop of makeup.
“I think the most important thing is not to be bored, that’s why you get old, because you have no more expectations or you feel you live in a routine from which you don’t know how to get out. I still have a lot of curiosity. When you die, you age.” Salma adds.
Salma recalls when she was younger she thought that the best time in her life would be at 30, but she was wrong.
“You are very optimistic in your twenties and you think you know everything, but when I turned 30 I was depressed, the thirties were the worst time for me. I cried on my 30th birthday: I felt unsuccessful, alone, a little lost, very scared, though I was working, at that age all I could think about was that I should have more achievements. At 30 you realize how difficult life is.
“When I turned 40 I was very happy. I understood that this whole plan I had was not going to happen, but it’s OK, no problem. I am not married, I said no problem; I have no children, I said no problem. I had already met Francois -her husband- and I thought, ‘hey, is not that bad’. I had already given up and I said, ‘wow, I have something extra, I didn’t see that coming.”
Happy birthday Salma !
At 50, Salma says she feels she has done many things of which she is proud.
One of these things is she made her way into Hollywood at a time when there was no place for Latinos.
