ABC/Rick Rowell(LOS ANGELES) — Salma Hayek opened up about her first big movie role when appearing Monday on the Armchair Expert podcast.
The 54-year-old actress opened up about her big break, 1995′s Desperado — where she played Carolina — and how she was consumed by terror when filming the movie’s love scene opposite of Antonio Banderas.
“When we were going to start shooting, I started to sob,” she recalled, adding that she confessed to her coworkers, “I don’t know that I can do it. I’m afraid.”
The Oscar-nominated actress said that Banderas, whom she called “an absolute gentleman,” alongside director Robert Rodriguez, tried to help her through the scene — but she was terrified about filming nude.
“I was not letting go of the towel,” she continued. “They would try to make me laugh. I would take it off for two seconds and start crying again.”
As for why she locked up, Hayek admitted that she was afraid of how others would view her — especially her family.
Said Hayek, “When you’re not you, then you can do it. But I kept thinking of my father and my brother… Are they going to see it? And are they going to get teased?”
She was also intimidated of Banderas, who had no problem with filming in the buff.
“He was an absolute gentleman and so nice,” the actress attested, “but he was very free. It scared me that, for him, it was like nothing.”
“I was so embarrassed that I was crying,” she furthered, adding that Banderas and Rodriguez went out of their way to make her feel comfortable and arranged the scene to be filmed in spurts.
Hayek later added that when her father and brother watched Desperado, they walked out during that part and came back once it was finished.
By Megan Stone
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