Salma Hayek says Adam Sandler saved her career after Hollywood told her she'd be 'expired' by her 40s
Hollywood said that Salma Hayek’s career would ‘expire’ by the time she was 40, but comedian Adam Sandler changed that.
After her sultry roles in From Dusk Till Dawn and Desperado in the nineties, Hayek said she struggled with being typecast despite wanting to take on more varied roles.
Thankfully, the Little Nicky comedian changed all of this when he cast the Latino actor in 2010’s Grownups.
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Prior to then, Hayek had always been deemed ‘too sexy’ for comedy roles by executives – who only saw her beauty.
“I was typecast for a long time,” she explained to British GQ, adding: “My entire life I wanted to do comedy and people wouldn’t give me comedies.”
Despite being keen to pursue different genres, she kept auditioning until she finally landed her dream part.
“I couldn’t land a role until I met Adam Sandler, who put me in a comedy [2010’s Grown Ups], but I was in my forties!,” she told the publication.
She continued: “They said, ‘You’re sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humour’ ... Not only are you not allowed to be smart, but you were not allowed to be funny in the 90s.”
It was a role that would lead her to pursue more comedy parts, including her side-splitting role as Sonia Kincaid in The Hitman’s Bodyguard alongside Samuel L Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.
Although she was made to feel inferior because of her looks, Hayek has said she is not bitter about how Hollywood has treated her.
She said: “I was sad at the time, but now here I am doing every genre, in a time in my life where they told me I would have expired – that the last 20 years I would have been out of business.
“So I’m not sad, I’m not angry; I’m laughing,” Hayek admitted.
It turns out Hollywood executives were also wrong about Hayek’s more sultry roles being over by her forties.
The 56-year-old actor has just taken on what might be her sexiest role yet, starring alongside Channing Tatum in Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
Hayek will play a wealthy socialite with an agenda of her own, in a part that sees the star embrace her power as she makes Mike an offer he can’t refuse.
“More than being a movie about an older woman falling in love with a younger guy, it’s about a middle-aged woman that has a lot of potential and is sick of being undermined her entire life,” she revealed.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance hits cinemas this week.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Adam Sandler, Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Channing Tatum
Katherine Sidnell