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Who helped Salma Hayek break into comedies?
Salma Hayek always wanted to do comedy, and the star gives Adam Sandler credit for giving her a platform.
Oscar-nominated actress Salma Hayek has had a career spanning three decades, where she has starred in one drama-thriller after another — but all she really wanted to do was comedy.
Hayek has a long history of playing more intense, serious roles rather than the light comedy she says she wanted to be a part of.
The star says that she had been deemed too attractive to be funny until Adam Sandler gave her a chance to crack jokes in the notorious funnyman’s 2010 film ‘Grown Ups’.
The Queen of Drama just wanted to laugh
In an interview published by GQ Magazine on Monday, the 56-year-old actress recalled her experience trying to break into comedic roles.
Before ‘Billy Madison’ star Adam Sandler gave her a chance, she was drawing zero.
“My entire life I wanted to do comedy and people wouldn’t give me comedies,” the ‘Magic Mike’ actress declared.
“I couldn’t land a role until I met Adam Sandler, who put me in a comedy, but I was in my forties!”
Why so serious?
Hayek lamented the fact she was always cast in serious roles in the past, which led to complicated feelings about her blockbuster-studded history of intense films.
“I was typecast for a long time,” Hayek explained. “They said, ‘You’re sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humor.’”
“Not only are you not allowed to be smart, but you were not allowed to be funny in the ‘90s,” the star concluded wryly.
Salma Hayek has the last laugh
Salma Hayek said that Hollywood has its ups and down, but she wasn’t going to let it get to her.
“Sometimes they build you up, sometimes they bring you down. What are you gonna do?”
When asked how she was affected by being typecast for so long, the actress explained that at first she was disheartened she wasn’t landing any roles in comedy, but that’s all changed.
“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,” she said.
What helped the actress get through the hard times? Her family and friends.
“I’ve built enough respect around me from the people that really matter that I feel seen beyond that,” Hayek said.