Salma Hayek is outspoken about her dyslexia. As she readies up for the new year, she shared an encouraging post for her “fellow dyslexics,” pushing them to try their best and to use their disability to their advantage.
The video was shared on Instagram and is made up of various clips of Hayek over the years. In them, she discusses her dyslexia on various occasions, praising her brain, and revealing that she often has to practice complex movie titles due to her condition. “I have to say that I started practicing saying the name of the movie since we were shooting it because I am dyslexic,” she said in an appearance at “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” There’s also a moment from her episode of “Black Mirror,” titled “Joan is Awful,” where she plays an alternate version of herself. “I am a dyslexic, talented actress with questionable English!” she says in the clip. There’s also another segment where she reveals that her brain works in images and not in words. “And that’s like a good thing if you wanted to be a director,” she said.
“For all my fellow dyslexics, especially the ones going back to school. You’ve got this,” she captioned the post.
© GettyImagesHayek’s dyslexia diagnosis
In an old interview from 2009, Hayek discussed her dyslexia more in depth, revealing that she received her diagnosis as a teenager. Still, thanks to the support she received, she never allowed her condition to affect her education. “I’m really a fast learner. I always was, which is maybe why in high school they didn’t realize I had dyslexia. I skipped years without studying too much,” she said to WebMD.
She also discussed how her condition affects her work as an actress. “[The dyslexia] doesn’t bother me now. Some people read really fast, but you’ll ask them questions about the script and they’ll forget. I take a long time to read a script, but I read it only once. I directed a movie [The Maldonado Miracle], and I never brought the script to the set.”
