CELEBS | Salma Hayek: “Perfection Is A Mirage”

Her career has spanned more than three decades already but it looks like nothing can spoil her timeless glamour. Mexican-American producer and award-winning actress, Salma Hayek, 54, believes that ageing isn’t something to fear but to embrace.

For too many generations, women have suffered from this terrible lie that age 50 is like falling off a cliff. – she said to The Daily Mirror -. Women have believed for so long we’d act and feel as if we were finished, and we surrendered to that myth. Fifty is a great age where we can be very productive, happy and not feel limited by anything .

Married to French businessman François-Henri Pinault, mother of Valentina, the unforgettable star of ‘Frida‘, the film inspired by the life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and directed by Julie Taymor, is not a fan of Botox or running on the treadmill. She takes care of herself but doesn’t overdo it: she fully embraces her stunning curves which she considers “artistic” and never washes her face in the morning. Of course, there’s no denying Salma has also been blessed with exotic good looks which compliment her fresh and fiery approach to life. Adopting the ‘less is more’ method, she refuses to overload her face with layer upon layer of products. “Your skin regenerates all the things that you lost during the day when you’re sleeping— she confesses to Vogue– restoring the right pH balance, producing the right oils, collagen; everything comes back to the skin. Then you go and wash it off? Why? My grandmother taught me this.” Hayek, who has always kept a natural approach when it comes to ageing and beauty, also doesn’t dye her hair. “It’s my natural colour, and it’s my natural white hairs – she said-. One of the reasons I don’t dye my hair is because I don’t have the patience to sit through it. I don’t want to spend what’s left of my youth pretending I’m younger and then not enjoying life.”

For Salma Hayek, ladies should celebrate who they are as individuals and invites them to embrace their journey through age to the fullest: “Perfection is a mirage – she says-. If you have a vision of perfection, when you take the road to get there, if you learn in the road, then when you arrive you will see it’s not perfection. Perfection can damage beauty, it can damage art, it can damage growth. Happiness cannot have this title of perfection.”

The Mexican – American actress also insists on the importance of making peace with our body, leaving behind people’s expectations.

You have to get up and become your own work of art- she said -. In the past, when I tried to imagine what I’d look like and what my life would be like at this age, I was terrified. I imagined myself looking old, but instead, I think I still look OK, and I’m fine with my appearance. Yes, I was always borderline chubby because I like my food and, frankly, I like my wine“. 

Hayek’s age has also given her some insight into the secret of happiness in life: “Being present and being inspired, especially by simple things,” she explained. Not that she doesn’t see room to improve: “My biggest ambition now is to become an organized person. It might seem like nothing, but I’m telling you, I’ve been trying it for 50 years and I still can’t do it.” Salma’s timeless approach just goes to show how taking a moment for yourself to relax and calm your mind also reflects on the outside.

However, there is one thing that comes with ageing she can’t put up with. “The worst part of the ageing process has been my eyes – she told Hola! in 2017 -. Not the wrinkles, the eyes themselves. I’m such a visual person and now I cannot read without depending on glasses. It has been really, really sad. That’s worse than the menopause.”

Salma Hayek got her big break in Hollywood with a role in Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado, eventually ascending to the pinnacle of the industry with her Academy Award-nominated turn in Frida. Hayek has also been involved in TV work, notably serving as executive producer of the hit series Ugly Betty. After being told her career would never last past the age of 35, she is now determined to prove her critics wrong. “There is still an age bias when it comes to acting roles for women. When I came to Hollywood I was told my career would be over when I hit 35 – Hayek told The Mirror-. But I’m still working and I’ve been getting some good roles. But there aren’t enough roles for women. I’d like to find some really great roles in the future. I still don’t think I’ve done my best work yet.”

What do we like most about her? She perceives herself as a ‘late bloomer’ in both business and motherhood. Her daughter Valentina was born when she was 41, which she views as ‘a fantastic privilege’: “Sometimes you find the love of your life at 16 and sometimes… you don’t. Both have pros and cons. For me, I’m a better mother because I had my child later, but I think your child comes at the right time — when it’s supposed to come for you. I don’t believe it’s when you want a child but when it’s time for that soul to come.”

Being grateful for what she achieved in life is her key to age gracefully: “I think I had a very interesting life and witnessed so many cool things in my life. I’m fifty and I am happy to be fifty and to have learned so many things – she said-. Also when you are my age, my philosophy is that I should feel I should relax. It’s OK if I am not the most beautiful. Do you know what I am saying? I am fifty, I am other things too, and now people get to see the other things because they are not distracted by the youth and the beauty“.