Salma Hayek

Salma Valgarma Hayek-Jimenez, better known as Salma Hayek, was born in the Mexican town of Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz, on September 2, 1966. Her family did not have a bad position, since her father, with Lebanese blood running through his veins, was a well-placed businessman, and his mother an opera singer. The actress is one of those whose legend says that as a child she decided to be an actress. Indeed, the chroniclers say that when she was five years old she sawA World of Fantasy (1971), based on the popular Roald Dahl story “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, and it was clear to her that she wanted to make movies. But in the meantime she had to go to a convent school, and then to the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico DF, where she studied International Relations. In fact, her Salma speaks Spanish, French, English and Arabic well.

As her desire to act was serious, the short (1.57 meters) and dark-haired actress fought for a leading role in the Mexican television soap operaTeresa , and got it. She was there between 1989 and 1991, when he left his country for Los Angeles. Again the legend asserts that she got out of a love affair with an important Mexican potentate.

Salma’s path in Hollywood was not easy, for actresses with her marked Latin features there were only marginal roles; and that he took great care in her training, taking classes from Stella Adler . So she had to peck at several television series of very little interest, or utter a single sentence under the command of Allison Anders in My Crazy Life (1993). That did not promise much, but she was lucky that a certain Robert Rodriguez gave the bell with El mariachi, an imaginative low-budget action film, so that in the sequelDesperado (1995), made with more means, was signed along with Antonio Banderas . Rodriguez was an important director in her life, as he would claim her again forFrom Dusk Till Dawn (1996),The Faculty (1998) andSpy Kids 3-D Game Over (2003) andThe Mexican (2003).

The actress was placed in the mecca of cinema, although always with roles consistent with her Chicano origin, and struggling not to be typecast as a spectacularly sexy woman. She herself never gave up the possibility of working in her country, and in fact she made movies likeThe alley of miracles (1995) andThere is no one to write to the colonel (1999), based on two novels by Nagui Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez . Among the roles in commercial films, the action movieRunaways in Chains (1996), romantic comedyOnly Fools Fall in Love (1997), The Disco Girl54 (1998) and Wild Wild West (1999), the most unsuccessful blockbuster of Will Smith ‘s career . In Spain he would get to shoot for Antonio Cuadri inThe high life (2000). With a then unknown Russell Crowe he made a fairly minor film,Breaking Up (1997).

Determined to control her career where she can, in 2000 she founded her own production company, Ventanarosa. In 2002 she arrivedFrida , the pinnacle, at least for the moment, of her career. Her composition by the painter Frida Kahlo earned her a well-deserved Oscar nomination, and the film won the statuette for the makeup that closely resembled her character. With that status, she could afford to make her debut as director of a cheap TV movie, El milagro de Maldonado (2003), where she had Peter Fonda under her orders ; Her work earned her an Emmy. The truth is that after her the films of her have not been great wonders. In 2006 she chained three films with pretensions but failed, one a western with her great friend of hers Penélope Cruz ,Bandits .Across the Universe (2007) cleverly used the music of the Beatles, but Salma’s role was decidedly minor.

Subsequently, the Mexican actress has slowed down the pace of her acting work. Perhaps the breakup of her engagement with Edward Norton , four years with him, made her reconsider about finding personal and family peace of mind for her. The fact is that more than one was surprised that in 2009 she married the important French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, owner of such important fashion brands as Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent. The relationship came from before, but nobody was betting on stability, which is there for the moment. She has had a daughter with him, Valentina.

His latest films have beenThe circus of strangers andBig kids . In addition, she appeared in six episodes of the television seriesRockefeller Plaza . Currently in Spain there is a lot of expectation about his work with José Mota , under the direction of Álex de la Iglesia , inThe spark of life . With another comedian, Kevin James , he plans to shoot Here Comes the Boom .