On Friday, November 19th, Salma Hayek was awarded the 2,709th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The honor was presented to Hayek by filmmaker Chloe Zhao and Adam Sandler, who was Salma Hayek’s costar in the film “Grown Ups.”
© GettyImages“Salma is a person of incredible talent and compassion,” said Zhao, who directed Hayek in the film “Eternals.” “She is a woman who is brave enough to walk her own way. And never allow anyone to put her in a box.”
When Salma took the stage she recounted a scary incident that occurred to her at the Hollywood Boulevard, and how this ceremony was “healing” for her. Salma recounted that she and her friends were visiting the landmark when they ignored a “poor man who was on the floor.” When that man “took offense,” he came after them with a knife. “Every time I thought of the Hollywood Boulevard, this is what I remember,” she said. “When I went home that night, I said ‘What am I doing here? Nobody wants me. I mean, I almost got killed today.’”
© GettyImages“But I stayed. I stayed. And I want to say to everybody that’s here, all my lovely fans: if you ask yourself what gave me the courage to stay, I say it was you because although they didn’t know me, here in Hollywood, the studios, all the Latins that are in the United States knew who I was. They understood that I came here with dreams like they did.”
Salma Hayek has had a long and successful career in Hollywood, appearing in film and TV and having her own production company, Ventanarosa, which focuses on the stories of Latinos. Hayek also founded the Kering Foundation alongside her husband, Francois-Henri Pinault, which focuses on the liberation of women from all over the world from sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
