Salma Hayek says Hollywood blocked her from starring in comedies for two decades

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Salma Hayek in a scene from ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’
| Photo Credit: Claudette Barius

Mexican-American actor Salma Hayek revealed that Hollywood blocked her from starring in a comedy for nearly 20 years, because she was deemed too sexy for the genre.

According to Variety, she made the revelation in a new interview with GQ UK.

Although Hayek has appeared in romantic comedies such as 1997’s ‘Fools Rush In’ and ‘Breaking Up’, she claims that it wasn’t until 2010’s ‘Grown-Ups’ that she was given the opportunity to star in a classic comedy film.

Hayek complimented Adam Sandler for finally allowing her to be funny. “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, 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,” Hayek said.

Talking about whether being blocked from acting in comedies frustrated her, she said, “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. I’m laughing, girl.”

Meanwhile, Hayek is returning in a romantic role for Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’. She plays the elder love interest of Channing Tatum’s eponymous stripper in the final edition of the ‘Magic Mike’ franchise.