Today At 54 Salma Hayek Looks Unrecognizable

Feb 02, 2021 by apost team

Salma Hayek is one of the most successful and gorgeous actresses on the planet, but before she was famous, Hayek led a rather humble life in her native Mexico. Having worked on her craft since the age of 18, Hayek's passion for acting eventually propelled her into the stratosphere and although she's at the top, she still finds time to advocate for causes that she's passionate about.

And while she's known to be one of the most beautiful actresses working in Hollywood, she's now 54 years old and looks rather different than in her younger years, but she's still every bit as gorgeous. From her upbringing to finding stardom, let's take a look at her journey and how she's changed along the way.

Born on September 2, 1966, in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, Salma Hayek once described her childhood as being pretty idyllic. Raised by her mother Diana, who was an opera singer, and her father Sami, an oil company executive, she also had a brother named Sami. She told The Guardian:

"It was a close community, we lived near the ocean and we would be outside all the time with the neighbours' kids, running free, playing football on the streets and at the beach. What better place could there be for a child?"

In another interview with O, The Oprah Magazine, she described herself as "a spoiled brat." But while she might have professed to be spoiled, her parents taught her the lesson of using her privilege to help others. In the same interview with The Guardian, she said her mother "was devoted to helping people" and that her parents "gave away dozens of music scholarships" to children who were talented but couldn't afford the financial burden associated with studying the craft.  

She also details her close relationship with her grandmother, Maria Luisa Lopez, describing her as her "greatest inspiration." A scientist who Hayek says was ahead of her time, she says, "I still have her inside of me and I always will."

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Despite her calling to become a star, Hayek enrolled at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City but dropped out soon after, to the dismay of her family. But she knew that acting was what she was destined to do and so she stuck with her decision.

Well, it didn't take long for the decision to pay off—after getting her first part playing Jasmine in a theater production of Aladdin for kids, Hayek went on to bigger things, landing her first TV gig in 1988 on Nuevo amanecer. The following year she got the titular role on Teresa, a telenovela that catapulted her to fame at the tender age of 22, making her one of Mexico's biggest soap opera stars.

Not satisfied with what she'd achieved in her native Mexico, Salma Hayek set her sights on Hollywood. One of the reasons for her desire to work in an industry outside of Mexico was to appear in films, in which Mexico didn't have much of an industry. On top of that, she felt that her acting could improve, telling O, The Oprah Magazine:

"I also was afraid I was a very bad actress, because I'd become famous very fast and was making money for people. When you're making money, they're never going to tell you whether you're good or bad. They don't care...I had a panic that people would think, she's good only because everyone knows her."

So despite the odds against her as she didn't speak a lot of English and knowing that she'd have to start from the bottom again, Hayek packed up her things, landed in Los Angeles in 1991, and began acting lessons with the renowned actress and teacher Stella Adler.

After her big move to LA, Hayek was diagnosed with dyslexia. While many might see it as an impediment, she has taken it in her stride. Speaking with DuJour, she's said:

"I’ve managed to find my way around it. Sometimes we make a bigger deal of our problems than they really are. So it’s good to talk about it. I don’t think people with dyslexia should think it’s an impediment. I read a script and it takes me double, maybe triple, the time of everyone else, but I only read it once and you can ask me anything."

On top of moving to a foreign country, learning the language, and having to build her career once again, Salma Hayek has talked about the racism she faced upon arriving in the United States. She was told she'd never work and that she'd be limited to playing a maid. In an interview with NPR she said, "I have had to fight, very, very hard for every little mediocre part I ever got."

In another interview with O, The Oprah Magazine, Hayek talked about being one of the first Latin women in the mainstream Hollywood industry:

"Because there was no industry or parts for Latin women when I came here, there was really no competitiveness. Jennifer Lopez and I were the first, and I think Jennifer was my partner at the beginning."

Once she had her foot in the door, Salma Hayek was able to secure some minor parts, but it wasn't until her role as Carolina in 1995's Desperado that she got her big break. But it wasn't always easy—the audition process was grueling and her hesitation to film a now-iconic love scene in the film caused her to nearly be fired by director Robert Rodriguez. But things worked out and in the following years, her position in Hollywood was cemented with further roles in Fools Rush In, Dogma, and Wild Wild West.

Despite her obvious good looks, Hayek was confused when she was first labeled a bombshell after her role in Desperado. Confusing the term to mean that she bombed her performance, she was just as upset when she learned that she'd been reduced to her looks. After being labeled sexy once again after Fools Rush In, she told Oprah, "then it became very depressing," adding, "It was not my plan, and it was not exciting."

She put it succinctly when she said later in the same interview, "It's good to be sexy, but when that's all they can see—no."

While her career might have set her up as a bombshell, her portrayal of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo gave the public a new perspective of Hayek. She famously produced and starred in the role, telling NPR about the lengths she took to get it made:

"It took me eight years to get it off the ground, and I did it myself. Nobody wanted to do it, nobody helped me with it."

Thankfully it came to fruition and is now one of Hayek's most iconic roles. It allowed the public to see a more versatile side of her acting work and established her as a tenacious producer. 

As some people get more famous, they're notorious for becoming more difficult to work with. But not Salma Hayek. In a 2013 interview with The Independent, she told the reporter, "If anything, I'm a lot more relaxed."

Over time her priorities have also changed, shifting from a focus on her career to her personal life. She said in the same interview:

"My priorities have changed. When you're younger, you're focused on the big role, the career. I felt like I had so much to prove to so many people. Now I feel like I don't have to prove anything to anyone. Life itself is more important. And I'm enjoying it."

Although Salma Hayek is happily married to her French billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault, whom she met in 2006 when she was 39 years old, there was a time that she thought she'd never find love. Speaking with Allure in 2015, she spoke of her experience:

"I was so worried, and I dated some people I shouldn't have dated. You get desperate, and you start seeing wonderful things in, like, the wrong guys. I also found some pretty good guys. But I wish I could say to myself, 'Hey, chill out. You're going to get a great husband that's going to adore you.' I would have saved myself a lot of personal drama."

She gushed over Pinault, adding, "I wish I knew [when I was younger] that I was going to fall crazy in love with the perfect man."

After finding her perfect man, Hayek then focused her attention on children. In 2015's Tale of Tales she played a queen that is so desperate for a child she goes to great lengths in order to conceive, Hayek told Red that she was familiar with "that yearning, that longing, and that pain." In 2009, at the age of 41, Hayek gave birth to the couple's daughter Valentina. She told Town & Country, "I think I’m a better mother because I had her later."

As well as Valentina, Hayek and Pinault have a blended family with three more children from his previous marriage, which she described as a "huge blessing."

On top of her acting work, Salma Hayek is a keen activist, mostly working with causes that empower women and girls. She co-founded the charity Chime for Change, has worked with UNICEF, and is a supporter of the Me Too movement. And while the public doesn't hear much of her charitable endeavors, Hayek once explained why that is. According to The Wrap, she said that she'd rather "live" her philanthropic work "instead of talk about it." 

While we've talked about the struggles Hayek faced upon first moving to Hollywood from Mexico, including experiencing racism, the tide has begun to turn. Speaking with Collider, she said:

"Hollywood has definitely grown, in embracing the inclusion of Latinos in the world because, for some time, we didn’t exist. We were not part of any stories. There are 40 million of us in this country. It was weird."

She goes on to say that she was "very privileged to be part of a small generation of people that broke through that door first," but she wasn't alone. She mentions Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and her countrymen, directors Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, and actor Gael Garcia Bernal as people who helped bring Latin representation to Hollywood.

Despite being known as one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, Salma Hayek knows that looks aren't everything, which is why she's comfortable getting older. She told Holmes Place:

"It’s OK if I am not the most beautiful...I am fifty, I am other things too, and now people get to see the other things because they are not distracted by the youth and the beauty."

Saying that she's "comfortable" and is even letting her grey hairs grow, she did mention one thing that she's unhappy about—her eyesight. As reported by Entertainment Tonight, Hayek said she's such a visual person but now she "cannot read without depending on glasses…It has been really, really sad. The eyes, for me, that's worse than the menopause."

Did you know about Salma Hayek's incredibly full and accomplished life? How do you think she looks at age 54? Tell us in the comments, then be sure to pass this on to those you know!