The movie Salma Hayek wants to delete from history: “I want it to go away”
Like most artists, actor and producer Salma Hayek is bound to have at least one project she regrets from her long career.
Born in Mexico, Hayek began her acting career with roles on television shows such as Un Nuevo Amanecer and Teresa, earning her considerable goddamn acclaim in the space of Mexican telenovelas. However, the rising star was set on having a career in Hollywood and moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of the 1990s, where she initially struggled because of the industry’s biases against Latinx actors. That said, Hayek still succeeded in securing some small film and television roles throughout the first half of the ‘90s, setting her on the path to the big time.
Hayek eventually broke out in Hollywood, starring opposite Antonio Banderas in 1995’s Desperado, and went on to achieve further recognition starring in From Dusk Till Dawn, Wild Wild West, and Dogma, alongside the likes of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Kenneth Branagh. She was then nominated for the Oscar for ‘Best Actress’ for portraying the legendary singer in 2003’s Frida.
For the last 20 years, Hayek has continued to be a very prolific actor. She is starring in this year’s dark comedy action film Sacrifice, led by Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy. Hayek also carved out something of a secondary voice-acting career for herself, bringing life to characters in The Pirates! Band of Misfits and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (which she also produced). But in this regard, you can’t really underestimate the popularity of her turn as Kitty Softpaws, opposite her old breakout co-star Banderas, in 2011 and 2022’s Puss in Boots movies, spinning off of the Shrek franchise.
A long career like this is guaranteed to come with a few misfires, but the movie that Hayek flat-out says she wishes she hadn’t made: 2014’s Everly, which was widely panned. Making some rushed comments at the end of an interview with The Guardian, Hayek said, “We don’t want to talk about. It’s not what I thought it would be. I want it to go away, that one.”
Directed by Joe Lynch, Everly follows its title character, a woman trafficked by a crime lord, who becomes a target after fighting back and races to save herself and her family. The movie’s excessive violence serves no real purpose, but offers Hayek some moments worthy of praise nonetheless. Interestingly, the movie was released on iTunes first in early 2015, before going on to a limited theatrical release – a rough prototype of a streaming release, which maybe would have seen more success with audiences today.
While Netflix might have been taking notes, there is value in Hayek having tried out something like this and looking back on it as only a bad lesson learned. She is probably hesitant to sign on to a movie like Everly again, though a better version of it certainly could be done. Hayek also told The Guardian, “And they said I wouldn’t be working after 35! Ha.”
She is 59 years old now, just had a movie premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is certtainly not finished yet.
