Salma Hayek has said she was told her career would “die” when she was in her thirties and she would never make it in Hollywood as a Mexican actress.
The star of films such as Frida, Desperado and from Dusk Til Dawn (54) said she wants other women to realise they are not “over” when they reach a certain age.
Hayek, who is starring in the new Amazon film Bliss with Owen Wilson and will soon appear in the Marvel film The Eternals, said: “It’s like the best time in my career.
“They told me my career would die mid-thirties. First of all, they told me a Mexican is never going to make it, because at the time, the new generations, it was impossible for a Mexican to have a leading role in Hollywood.
“And it was like it was not real – it was like this strange reality that now has become a normality. But not at the time.
“And I think it’s great, I’m proud of it, I want to shout it to the world, because I was told so many times it couldn’t happen and I almost believed them but I fought it and I won.
“And I want other women to realise that, because even in your thirties you feel the pressure, in your forties you feel the pressure – and late blooming, it’s a beautiful thing.
“And we’re not ‘over’ at this time, or at another time. if you’re creative and enthusiastic and curious about life, life can be exciting forever, the entire time.”
In Bliss, Wilson plays a man who was recently divorced and sacked from his job, who meets Hayek’s Isabel, a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is a computer simulation, and the actress said the film feels particularly resonant during the current pandemic.
She said: “There are so many conspiracy theories and when you talk about what’s real or not, I think one of the things that are separating us is that everybody’s creating their own reality.
“It’s interesting that this movie comes out as this time, because I think with all the confinement, we created our own ‘Bliss’ world through technology and in that cave you can find so many different ways at looking at things.
“So, everybody’s doing their own reality and it’s kind of separating us because what’s real or not real, it’s not one thing anymore.”
Bliss is out now on Amazon Prime Video
