TV - Movies
Salma Hayek's
Breakout Role
You Totally
Forgot About
By TIM LAMMERS
Throughout her lengthy career, Salma Hayek has maintained a deep loyalty to director Robert Rodriguez. Her numerous collaborations with this creative filmmaker make sense considering Rodriguez's second feature-length film is also the movie that introduced Hayek to American audiences.
Hayek was in her early 20s when she made her debut in the Mexican telenovela soap opera "Un Nuevo Amanecer," after which she toiled in supporting roles. Hayek's big break came in 1995 when Rodriguez cast the rising star opposite Antonio Banderas in his hyperkinetic crime thriller "Desperado."
"Desperado" stars Banderas as El Mariachi, a gunslinging guitar player who gets caught up in a battle with a menacing drug lord and encounters Carolina (Hayek), a bookstore owner who aids the gunman in his fight. To this day, "Desperado" is a major turning point in Hayek's career, shifting her from a supporting actor to a leading star.