Salma Hayek has praised Antonio Banderas as an “absolute gentleman” after he helped her when she broke down in tears on the set of 1995 film ‘Desperado’.
Salma Hayek
The 54-year-old actress had her big break as Carolina in the action movie, and has admitted she started to “sob” when it came to shooting an intimate sex scene with Antonio, who starred in the film as El Mariachi.
Salma has now admitted she was “scared” Antonio would brush off the importance of the scenes, but was surprised to discover he was “so nice” about the situation.
She recalled: “So, when we were going to start shooting, I started to sob [and said] ‘I don’t know that I can do it. I’m afraid.’
“One of the things I was afraid of was Antonio - he was an absolute gentleman and so nice, and we’re still super close friends - but he was very free. It scared me that for him, it was like nothing. I started crying, and he was like, ‘Oh my God. You’re making me feel terrible.’ And I was so embarrassed that I was crying.”
Salma also insisted the film’s director, Robert Rodriguez, also “never put pressure” on her to do anything she was uncomfortable with.
But the actress still found it difficult to get through the scenes without crying.
Speaking to Dax Shepard and Monica Padman for the ‘Armchair Expert’ podcast, she said: “I was not letting go of the towel. They would try to make me laugh. I would take it off for two seconds and start crying again. But we got through it. We did the best with what we could do at the time.
“When you’re not you, then you can do it. But I keep thinking of my father and my brother. And are they going to see it? And are they going to get teased? Guys don’t have that. Your father will be, ‘Yeah! That’s my son!’ ”
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