The Transformation Of Salma Hayek From Childhood To Marvel's Eternals

Thanks to her age-defying visage, it's hard to believe that Oscar-nominated actor Salma Hayek was once a new kid on the block in Hollywood in the mid-1990s. Now, with more than 80 film and television roles under her belt, Hayek's path has led her to the superhero realm under the auspices of Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao for Marvel's "Eternals." Born the daughter of a Spanish mother and Lebanese father on September 2, 1966, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, Hayek enrolled in a Catholic school at age 12 in Louisiana (via Biography). Following high school, Hayek went on to pursue a degree in international relations in Mexico (via Britannica).

Eventually, Hayek — who said in a 1996 interview while promoting her film "Fled" that she "always wanted to be an actress" — made her move from college to television in Mexico, and eventually to films in Hollywood. Tinseltown, surprisingly, wasn't quite the place she anticipated. "The Hollywood that I've heard was like old movies with a lot of glamour that we don't do anymore ... [but] it's a street in Los Angeles where drunks spit on the floor and there's a lot of punks," Hayek said, bluntly. "So, I didn't think of Hollywood [in the] sense of this nostalgic thing of the old Hollywood and the glamour of it. I just wanted to do films and I'm doing them, so I got what I was expecting."

Thankfully, the expectations fans have of Hayek have continually been met since the beginning of her career, and her acting has produced quite a highlight reel.

Salma Hayek's big break in Hollywood came with her casting by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez in the 1995 crime thriller "Desperado," in which she stars as a small-town bookstore owner named Carolina, opposite Antonio Banderas as the gunslinging-slash-guitar playing El Mariachi. Clearly Rodriguez was impressed with the rising star, as she went on to star in several of the director's films, including the 1996 horror thriller "From Dusk Till Dawn," the 1998 sci-fi thriller "The Faculty," and the 2003 family adventure film "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over."

Also in 2003, Hayek reteamed with Banderas for Rodriguez's "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," which is a bookend film in a way for the frequent collaborators, since it is a sequel to "Desperado." Adding an important chapter to "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" was Johnny Depp, who plays an aloof CIA agent named Sheldon Jeffrey Sands in the film.

Salma Hayek began showing her gift for making people laugh with the ABC comedy-drama "Ugly Betty," in which she appears in a recurring role of book author Sofia Reyes in 2006 and 2007. Using her growing showbiz clout, Hayek's main function on "Ugly Betty" was an executive producer, a title she held for the entire series run from 2006 to 2010.

It wasn't until 2017, though, when Hayek took her comedic prowess to the extreme as Sonia Kincaid, the incarcerated, F-bomb slinging wife of hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) in the Ryan Reynolds action comedy "The Hitman's Bodyguard." Apparently, Hayek made such a huge impression on audiences and director Patrick Hughes that the title to the sequel was slightly reworked to reflect her larger role in "The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard" in the summer of 2021.

While the sequel's pandemic-hampered $70 global take (via Box Office Mojo) was no match for the 2017 original's $176.6 worldwide tally, there were no shortages of Hayek F-bombs (and variations thereof) for theater audiences. A personal bonus for Hayek in the "Hitman" sequel was that it reunited the actor with her "Desperado" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" costar Antonio Banderas.