See Salma Hayek Celebrate Her Most Iconic Scene Ever
Salma Hayek shared highlights of her greatest performances in Robert Rodriguez films to celebrate the director's birthday.
Salma Hayek recently posted a video to Instagram celebrating some of her hottest roles. The post acts as a highlight reel of Hayek’s work with director Robert Rodriguez spanning her heartstopping, seductive snake dance in From Dusk to Dawn to Once Upon a Time in Mexico‘s daring hotel escape alongside Antonio Banderas. The clip ends with a picture of the two taken in 1995 above a similar pic from 2015. Unsurprisingly, Hayek looks the same age in both pictures.
It’s Salma Hayek‘s breakout role, shaking her groove thing in a tight red bikini as Santanico Pandemonium, that’s the highlight of the highlights reel. The iconic scene features the then 29-year-old newcomer as a sexy Vampire, dancing around in skimpy swimwear to get her victims blood pumping before she drains them of it. Salma’s co-star in the scene is a real, living python she wears draped around her neck, an act she had to undergo eight weeks of hypnotherapy just to endure.
The Latina actress was egged on by Rodriguez, who told her if she wouldn’t do it he would get pop-megastar Madonna to take her place. In the end, not only did Salma Hayek overcome her paralyzing fear of snakes, but she completely improvised one of the steamiest dances not to involve a private booth and a lap while having what she called a “ritual of spiritual communion” between her and the snake.
The other scenes in the Instagram video come from 1995’s Desperado and its 2003 sequel, Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The two films are part of Robert Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy, a trio of loosely connected movies that all share similar themes and take place in Mexico. The series began with ultra-low-budget El Mariachi, a movie Rodriguez shot on video and edited using two VCRs.
The actress posted the video in celebration of Robert Rodriguez’s birthday calling the Book of Boba Fett director “family to my family” and thanking him for writing her husband, billionaire François-Henri Pinault’s favorite song. Rodriguez and Salma Hayek have been friends ever since he cast her in her first major role opposite frequent co-star Antonio Banderas in the above-mentioned Desperado.
No scenes of Salma Hayek in Spy Kids 3, her other collaboration with Rodriguez, made the video—possibly due to a clashing of styles between the child-friendly film and the other three adult movies featured. The odd juxtaposition between adult and children’s entertainment is one of Rodriguez’s specialties, as evidenced by the canonical inclusion of Danny Trejo’s ultra-violent Machete character in the Spy Kid universe.
The actress recently made an appearance in the first episode of the newly released Black Mirror season 5 on Netflix. The episode, titled “Joan is Awful” features Salma Hayek as an AI-generated version of herself playing a random woman as she navigates her mundane daily life. We won’t get into spoilers but the episode does a good job of highlighting just how scary the prospect of a future dominated by AI-generated entertainment truly is.
Weather she’s reminiscing about the good old days by posting iconic clips of her sexiest scenes or warning us about the dangers of artificial intelligence, Salma Hayek is always a feast for the eyes.
