Salma Hayek Once Recalled Her Traumatic Experience Of Filming A S*x Scene As She Wasn’t Letting Go Of Her Towel: “… I Keep Thinking Of My Father & My Brother”
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek once opened up about how she struggled with the graphic s*x scene in Desperado. Read on
When Salma Hayek Had A Traumatic Experience Filming S*x Scene In Desperado, “I Was So Embarrassed That I Was Crying..” (Picture Credit: Instagram & Desperado Poster)
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Filming s*x scenes for a film is no walk in the park, and things are bound to get a little uncomfortable when you’re dropping your clothes off with a near stranger. Several Hollywood actresses and actors have opened up about the challenge of filming the stimulated s*x scene. Salma Hayek, too, once opened up about it.
The Mexican American actress starred in the 1995 film Desperado opposite Antonio Banderas. The film, helmed by Robert Rodriguez, is the second instalment in his Mexico Trilogy. The trilogy includes the films El Mariachi (1993) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).
Salma Hayek broke out from the action movie where she played the role of Carolina, a tough book cafe owner who teams up with Banderas’ El Mariachi to seek revenge on the drug lord who killed his lover.
The Oscar-nominated actress once appeared on Armchair Expert, the popular weekly podcast hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, and explained how she struggled with the graphic s*x scene in Desperado. She also clarified that her trauma had nothing to do with Rodriguez or Banderas.
Even though there was no mention of a s*x scene between her character, Carolina and El Mariachi (Banderas) in the script, it was brought to her attention after production began. Salma Hayek agreed to do the scene on a closed set as Rodriguez was her “bro” and his then-wife, producer Elizabeth Avellan, was her “best friend”. There would be just the four of them while shooting the scene.
“So, when we were going to start shooting, I started to sob,” Hayek recalled, adding she kept saying to the trio, “I don’t know that I can do it. I’m afraid.” She said one of the things she was afraid of was Banderas, now her close friend and frequent collaborator.
“He was an absolute gentleman and so nice, and we’re still super close friends — but he was very free. It scared me that, for him, it was like nothing. I started crying, and he was like, ‘Oh my God. You’re making me feel terrible.’ And I was so embarrassed that I was crying,” Salma Hayek said.
Despite everything, the moment was very traumatic for the Mexican American actress. She said. “I was not letting go of the towel. They would try to make me laugh. I would take it off for two seconds and start crying again. But we got through it. We did the best with what we could do at the time. When you’re not you, then you can do it. But I keep thinking of my father and my brother. And are they going to see it? And are they going to get teased? Guys don’t have that. Your father will be, ‘Yeah! That’s my son!'”
Salma Hayek also recounted taking her father and brother to see the film but said they left the theatre during the scene in question and returned when it was over.
