Salma Hayek says she didn’t want to work with fellow actor Javier Bardem in The Roads Not Taken movie. According to the Mexican star, she didn’t want to ruin her friendship with Bardem. “I always say, ‘If you want to spoil a friendship, you either borrow a friend’s money or play with him in a movie,” she said, as reported by MSN. “It wasn’t easy because we had to yell and scream at each other. I remember the first time I came to the set,” she recalled. “Me and Javier went to have lunch and called Penelope [Cruz], laughing and making faces. She watched it and then said, ‘You won’t succeed, guys.’”

Luckily, the actors were able to figure it out, and Hayek agreed to portray Bardem’s wife. “But the next day, we left our trailers, stepped in front of a camera, and Javier was Leo, and I was Dolores. We transformed into the actors who first met on this set, just two strangers doing our job.”

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The Roads Not Taken is a drama film written and directed by Sally Potter, starred Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek, and Laura Linney. The movie was released on March 13, 2020, and tells Leo’s story broken down by the experiences he lived in different locations. The nonlinear narrative of the film takes place in Mexico, New York City, and Greece.

According to the Hollywood star, she is in the best moment of her career. “I’m offered the best parts of my life at 53. Everything around me seems so new; so many wonderful things have happened in the past couple of years,” she revealed.

Although Hayek assures she is getting the best scripts now, 24 years ago, a role catapulted her career and turned her into one of the sexiest Latinas in the industry. Salma Hayek’s performance in the 1996 action horror film From Dusk till Dawn left perplexed more than one. For four minutes, the Mexican superstar controlled her phobia of snakes and danced to the rhythm of “After dark,” a song from the Californian band Tito y Tarántula, with a yellow python curled up.

To prepare for the role of “Satanic Pandemonium,” Salma Hayek undergoes eight weeks of hypnotherapy — a treatment with guided relaxation and intense concentration that helps patients to explore painful thoughts, feelings, and memories from their conscious minds. After nailing her performance, the actress described the experience as “a ritual of spiritual communion between me and the snake.”