Salma Hayek reveals directors told her to 'sound dumber'

Typecasting in Hollywood is real. Just ask Jim Carrey. Or Adam Sandler. Or even Sandler’s Grown Ups co-star Salma Hayek. The actress (and top-secret Meghan Markle co-collaborator) has been opening up about some of her tougher Hollywood experiences lately, which include some frustrating encounters with certain directors and casting people.In a new interview with Total Film, the 53-year-old looked back at her career and recalled how, despite having had extensive training, she was told to dumb herself down and play into Latin stereotypes while getting ready for some of her previous roles. “Unfortunately, I never had a lot of chances to do parts where I could use a lot of things I learned,” she told the publication, according to the Daily Mail. “Or you learn them and they don’t let you… I’ve had directors say to me, ‘Dumber and faster. Sound dumber and speak faster.’”

 

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When you start losing it after three weeks of quarantine. Cuando se te empieza a ir la onda después de tres semanas en cuarentena. #challenge #yogainheels #quarantinemood

A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Apr 3, 2020 at 7:32am PDT

Stereotypical gigs aside, Hayek has definitely impressed audiences since her days starring in a Mexican telenovela, having racked up Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe nominations over the years. She’s also played a pretty diverse bunch of roles, mastering everything from animated food in Sausage Party and the badass Caroline in Once Upon a Time in Mexico to artist Frida Kahlo in Frida and even a nurse in 30 Rock. She credits it all to a downright rigid acting class that put an extreme focus on perfecting the craft.“One time, one of the people in the class didn’t come and showed up after three days with a paper from the doctor,” Hayek also said in the interview. “(The acting teacher) came over to him and said, ‘Is that your death certificate?’ He said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘You can walk out and never come back. If you’re doing theatre will you go to the audience and say you were sick? You were not sick enough. If you were in the hospital, I’d understand, but two days in bed… don’t show up with that paper to my class. This is not a joke. You are either committed to this class or you don’t belong here.'”If that sounds harsh, Hayek continued to tell a story in which she was targeted by the teacher, who wasn’t too thrilled about her relationship with a prop broom. During one performance when she was told to sweep the floor, Teach got his dust bunnies all up in a knot. “I started sweeping and he stopped and said, ‘Sit down — you’re not coming up here for two weeks because you don’t sweep correctly,’” she recalled. “’You have to do the research about every single detail. You have to love every single prop.’” Sounds like a real Monica Gellar.Hardcore or not, those lessons seem to have paid off. Hayek is currently in self-isolation like the rest of Hollywood, but she starred in this year’s Like a Boss alongside Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne, was in March’s The Roads Not Taken, and has three films in post-production with releases to be scheduled in the near future… or so social distancing movie lovers can only hope.[video_embed id='1943019']Before you go: Harry and Meghan promise 'zero engagement' with U.K. tabloids[/video_embed]