Salma Hayek was told she couldn’t act in comedies early on in her career
(Picture: Ashley Olah )Salma Hayek has said she no longer feels defined by her sexuality after being “typecast” early on in her career.
The actress, 56, revealed that she wanted to star in comedies for her “entire life”, but Hollywood bosses told her she was “sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humour”.
But Hayek said everything changed in 2010 when Adam Sandler, 56, cast her in comedy Grown Ups and gave her career a new lease of life in the genre.
Speaking in a new interview with GQ Hype, the Mexican star said: “I was typecast for a long time, my entire life I wanted to do comedy and people wouldn’t give me comedies.
“I couldn’t land a role until I met Adam Sandler who put me in a comedy [2010’s Grown Ups], but I was in my forties!
“They said, ‘You’re sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humour...’ Not only are you not allowed to be smart, but you were not allowed to be funny in the 90s.”
The screen siren also spoke about how she doesn’t feel her “sexuality is the only thing that’s appreciated”.
The Eternals star added: “I’m at a place in my life where I don’t think my sexuality is the only thing that’s appreciated anymore.
“But if it was, I wouldn’t care, because I’ve built enough respect around me from the people that really matter that I feel seen beyond that.”
Hayek also reflected on her near-three-decade-long career in Hollywood and admitted she once felt “sad” about being typecast early on in her career.
But with hindsight and a string of success at the box office, she said she is now “laughing” that she is successful in every genre “in a time in my life where they told me I would have expired”.
She continued: “I was sad at the time but now here I am doing every genre, in a time in my life where they told me I would have expired – that the last 20 years I would have been out of business.
“So, I’m not sad, I’m not angry; I’m laughing.”
Fans of the acclaimed actress will next she her appear opposite Channing Tatum, 42, in Magic Mike’s Last Dance, in which she plays siren Maxandra Mendoza.
