Salma Hayek’s favourite director to work with: “She is a genius”
When it comes to the titanic forces of Mexican cinema, there are few who have made as significant a global cultural impact as Salma Hayek. After making her first few appearances in the 1990s, including Desperado and Wild Wild West, it wasn’t long before Hayek took the world by storm with her portrayal of the painter Frida Kahlo in 2002’s Frida.
In fact, Hayek’s effort in Julie Taymor’s biopic made Hayek the first Mexican actor to be nominated for the ‘Best Actress’ Academy Award, and that recognition meant that she never looked back or rested on her laurels, going on to star in several acclaimed productions including Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Bandidas.
Throughout her career, Hayek has been afforded the opportunity to work with some of the most significant directors in the film industry, and she’s played for Robert Rodriguez on several occasions, by turn with Quentin Tarantino in From Dusk till Dawn, and with Kevin Smith too.
But none of those is Hayek’s favourite filmmaker to work with as she once expressed that the best of the lot is, in fact, Angelina Jolie, who cast Hayek in her film Without Blood. The film is an adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Alessandro Baricco.
Durinh an interview with Deadline around the time Without Blood wrapped, Hayek said, “Angelina is the best director I’ve ever worked with. I absolutely loved working with her; I enjoyed every second of it. It’s a tough piece, but it was so delicious to come to work every single day. She is a genius, and I think this might be her best movie yet. She did an amazing job, really.”
Hayek admitted to being “completely blown away” by Jolie’s “mind, her dedication, her technical knowledge, and her control of every aspect, as well as her vision which is so clear.” The actor added, “She is so good with the actors, so passionate, and so focused.”
But at the forefront of Hayek’s admiration for Jolie’s talent as a director is her personable approach to filmmaking. She noted, “But most of all, I was blown away by her kindness to every single person on the set. I talked about this with my co-star Demián Bichir, and we were saying, ‘Wow, she’s really something’.”
Jolie first came to the public’s attention as an actor in the likes of Gia, Girl, Interrupted and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, but eventually turned her attention to humanitarian work and directing. Following on from Unbroken and First They Killed My Father, Hayek’s comments on Jolie’s directing work on Without Blood sounds like she could have several more acclaimed pictures up her sleeve.
