"I’m not moving to Paris to be a housewife! Or, yes, I am!"

Photo: Source

Today I found a two week old interview with Salma Hayek  at the New York Times. It's entitled "The Real Housewife of Paris". An extensive and technically well-written portrait that, probably accidentally, crushes every single one of Salma's likeable character traits. It starts with the title shot: Salma refuses to be photographed smoking cigarettes, but agrees to have a lit match dangling from her mouth - confusing.

In spite of  numerous professional achievements that include the production of hit TV-series Ugly Betty, an Oscar nomination and UNICEF activism, the article continues to list the "by far most significant roles in her life" as being a cook to a filthy-rich husband demanding a three-course meal every night, and a driver (albeit a loving one) to her 3-year-old daughter. Yet instead of going into more detail on the causes of her social work, Salma proudly points out that while she could easily hire a stylist to assist her in picking free and custom-fit designer clothes for the day, she much rather takes the risk of mismatching herself: "I want [my husband] to be proud of me and not think, The stylist did a good job. That’s not sexy!”

According to the article, Salma prefers starring in independent European movie productions to Hollywood box-office hits now mainly because they are being shot closer to her family's estate in Paris. And if she doesn't feel like working any given day, she spontaneously goes on strike and just tells everyone to "deal with it". Frequent racist remarks she has been subjected to as a Mexican woman in her work environment ostensibly never hurt her: "Many times the idiots are in power. What are you gonna do?" Partying with corrupt Russian oligarchs sounds like mighty good distraction!

I used to confuse Salma Hayek with Penélope Cruz, who acted in many more memorable films than Salma did, Volver, for example, and who says smart stuff like "Ego is a lion we have to keep under control". After reading the above mentioned article, I am confident this mix-up won't happen again.