Salma Hayek was given the Decade of Hotness Award at the Spike’s 2015 Guys Choice Awards on Saturday. The award acknowledged ten years or more of sexiness for an actress.
Salma Hayek says she used to want to be recognized for her acting, rather than her good looks. Her roles in films like Frida, in which she sported a unibrow a la Frida Kahlo, allowed her to display her acting chops.
But most people will remember Salma Hayek from films like Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Four Rooms — all of which gave her cleavage plenty of screen time.
“When you start you’re like, ‘No, I want them to see me for my talent, and know me as an actress,’” Salma Hayek told reporters at the awards ceremony.
She recalled finding out that she was considered a “bombshell” after the film Desperado was released.
“My English was worse than now and I read the reviews that, ‘Salma Hayek was a bombshell,’ and to me this means that I was terrible, that I had bombed!” Hayek said. “Everyone told me, ‘No, no, it means that you’re great, that you’re sexy!’ And [I was like], ‘That’s it? They didn’t talk about my acting?”
Salma Hayek flaunting some glorious cleavage #milf pic.twitter.com/fnH3FMXnTn
— LAD Stuff (@cillario101) June 7, 2015
In this age of debates over sexism in Hollywood, complaints about being valued only for one’s looks are very common. In fact, it was Salma Hayek who spoke out during the recent Cannes Festival on the topic.
“The only kind of movie where women make more than men is the porno industry,” Hayek told a panel at Cannes. “It’s simple ignorance.”
“Look, we cannot stand as victims and say they are not looking at us,” she said. “What gives me hopes is that we are in a position of power.”
But that doesn’t mean the star doesn’t dig being called hot.
“Now?! They want to give me a decade of hotness – I’m like, ‘Bring it on!’ ” she says. “You really like to be ‘hot’ after you’re 40.”
I think I love Salma Hayek
— RaxTheDJ (@RaxTheDJ) June 8, 2015