“I think I’m in the biggest and smallest
budgeted film of the summer,” reveals
30-year-old acting beauty Salma Hayek,
whose over $100 million WILD WILD WEST
bows this fourth of July weekend and whose
under $2 million indie THE VELOCITY OF
GARY (*not his real name) hits the art house
circuit two weeks later.
While the former Mexican soap actress has
found success on the American shores in a
wide variety of films (including those big
blockbuster type films) she admits there’s
also something quite appealing creatively
when she gets involved with smaller indie
projects.
“I have a soft spot in my heart for the
independent film and I will always go back,”
says Hayek. “No matter how big the films
get, no matter how big my trailer gets I will
always go back. I fight it sometimes. It’s
been very bad for my career at times but I
like doing the intimate work where you’re
not distracted with other things. There’s a
freedom to it.”
Hayek’s own production company
Ventanarosa produced her latest THE
VELOCITY OF GARY which focuses on a
young street hustler named Gary (Thomas
Jane) who is caught up in a world of porn
stars, phone sex operators and
transvestites. When he meets sexy porn
star Valentino (Vincent D’Onofrio), Gary
ends up in an interesting love triangle that
has waitress Mary Carmen (Hayek) and Gary
vying for Valentino’s love.
“It’s a very intense movie,” says Hayek. “It’s
a modern tragedy and a really, really weird
movie. I loved my part and it was a great
role to play.”
Funding films with great parts for her may
be fun at times – but Hayek admits she does
realize “I need to start making some money
now” which is when she jumps aboard films
like WILD WILD WEST. But getting those
parts proves to be even more complicated.
“It took Barry six months to make up his
mind if he wanted me,” says Hayek. “He
made me come back again and again. He
wanted to make sure I could say the
dialogue faster, but the bottom line was he
didn’t think I could be funny. Finally they
gave me the movie and after 10 minutes on
set I thought he hated me and was going to
make my life miserable. After the first scene,
though, he came up and said ‘you’re
adorable and you’re so funny. I didn’t know
you could be funny. That’s why I didn’t want
you. I am sorry, I should have known better.
What an idiot I was. I wasted so much time
and money. I should have hired you in the
first place.’ So I asked him what other
movies of mine he had seen and he said
FROM DUSK ‘TILL DAWN [with Hayek having
little more than a glorified cameo as a
vampire stripper].”
The Hollywood games aside, Hayek has
found herself attached to an impressive
slate of upcoming films. She appears in
Kevin Smith’s controversial DOGMA, which
is still shopping around for a distributor
after the Catholic League protested its
religious content and caused Miramax films
(who is also owned by conservative Disney)
to drop the film from its company. Now it’s
even asking Disney to drop specialty label
Miramax.
“I know there’s this group pissed off and
doing some protests, but the last
information I got is they haven’t even seen
the film – and they’re protesting?”
questions Hayek. “I think they’ll protest
anything that has Catholic something in it.”
Catholic herself, Hayek notes she didn’t
agree with everything Smith had written, but
she herself doesn’t feel it’s her right to get
on the pulpit about anyone’s art.
“It was an artistic choice to make this film,
not a choice for life,” says Hayek. “Do I
believe in everything the script says? No.”
In the film, Hayek plays a frustrated muse
looking for some of her own creative
satisfaction.
“I play a muse upset because I have all
these really great important famous people
who use me and get all the credit, fame and
acclaim,” says Hayek. “I get no recognition
for my participation in the process, so I ask
God for permission to come to earth and try
for my own fame and fortune as a writer.
When I arrive, I get writers block though and
somehow get involved in this divine
celestial mission to save the world.”
Up next for Hayek – if they get the right
director – is her pet project FRIDA based on
the life of famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo,
a role Madonna was original attached to
many, many years ago.
“Having Madonna involved has been really
good for this project —she brought a lot of
attention to this artist,” says Hayek, who
would pester the right owners about who
was playing a role when Hayek was hardly a
blip on the Hollywood radar. “Madonna had
an authentic and sincere interest in the
artist. She had a lot of her paintings. She
has a following and I had been studying her
for many years. It came from the heart for
her – she admired this woman and wanted
the world to know about her. Other
actresses, though, when the project
become hot jumped on, wanting to do the
role when Madonna left. It’s not a labor of
love for them. I’ve been developing it for
years now and it’s become my pet project. I
understand the philosophies of the time and
place. I was 14 years old the first time I came
into contact with her. It’s been a long
relationship that has evolved in many ways.
I am Mexican and I understand Mexico in
the ’30s and ‘40s when the artist would
express the reality of the country in a
sociopolitical way.”
Transforming herself into Kahlo has been
the most complicated part of the process.
Miramax has greenlit the project, but there
is a concern not to make Hayek too
unattractive.
“Frida and I have the same facial structure
which is the most important thing and the
hardest thing to alter with prosthetic,” says
Hayek. “We have the same mouth and same
eyes. Of course Frida didn’t wear the
makeup I wear and she had one eyebrow
and her hair was different. She also has a
different nose and her ears were bigger. We
have done some prosthetics for the ears
and the one eyebrow, but Miramax doesn’t
want me to change the nose and they don’t
want me to wear the mustache, though I
want to wear the mustache. The similarities
though are really scary.”
As Hayek admits her Mexican heritage is
very important to her, she also notes at the
end of the day her family lineage has made
her a unique product in Hollywood.
“Part of who I am is being Mexican, but it’s
not at all who I am either,” says Hayek. "I’m
also half-Lebanese and at the end of the day
the truth is I don’t have a drop of Mexican
blood in my body. My grandparents from my
father’s side are Lebanese and my
mothers's side is Spanish. I grew up in
Mexico and I feel for a lot of the struggles
the country is going through. The country
has been really good for me and I want to
give some of that back.”
To do that Hayek’s company is geared up to
not only produce American films, but also
Spanish language film and television with
output deals through both Columbia-TriStar
television and Telemundo.
“I’m mixing it up a bit and doing a little of
both,” says Hayek. “I’m definitely very
interested in creating more opportunities
for Latin talent and supporting Mexican
television and cinema. I also feel that there
are a lot of themes where Latins can be
included in that universe that don’t have to
be strictly ‘Mexican’ films. Many people
don’t hire actors because they’re Latin. I
think they should give equal opportunities
to everyone because maybe they will
discover someone really inspiring in the
process.”
