Transcript by Ed Seawright

"Salma used to say that the only parts Hollywood had for Latinas were maids and housecleaners," recalls Robert Rodriguez, who directed Hayek in 1995's Desperado. That's putting it mildly.

"When I first arrived here, there was nothing for Latins," says the Mexican-born Hayek, 34, who hit Hollywood years before today's so-called Latin explosion.

That's why the actress strives, she says, to "expand people's knowledge of who Mexicans are."

Hayek fought for six years to produce and star in the upcoming drama Frida, about the life of legendary Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

"It's hard to make a movie about a woman who had a mustache and was a cripple and where the leading man is fat and ugly!" declares Hayek. "It's so not a conventional love story." It's also not " just another career move," Hayek insists.

" It's something I'm in love with and truly believe in. It's a story about my people, and it was important for me to tell it."

--- Mary Ann Marshall

© Glamour Magazine 2001