Salma Hayek is one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, but in a recent interview with Lucky she reveals she struggled with really bad acne growing up. So bad, in fact, it sent her into a depression.
“You want to talk about bad skin? I had acne. And this acne was so bad, it sent me into a severe, severe depression. Like I couldn’t leave the house. I’d wake up in the morning and lie there and touch my face before I got up, just to prepare myself to look in the mirror!
The next stage with that sort of depression is food: too little, or too much. Guess what I did? I mean, I was fat and broken out, I couldn’t leave the house and I couldn’t pay the rent!”
A friend, she says, saved her:
“Alfonso Cuarón—amazing director—he came to the house. He did not play it down, he did not try to say, Oh you look fine. He said you can’t do this to yourself and taught me to meditate, relax. I got myself back together!”
And her take on plastic surgery? Though tempted, she’s never gone under the knife and has no intentions of even messing with Botox. She says:
“Botox, trust me I’ve been tempted—but I resist! Think about what happens to your muscles — and your skin— if you’re sick and don’t move for a few days. It all atrophies! Plus, if you freeze a muscle in your face, other muscles have to compensate! And once you stop, what does that look like?”
You know Latin people? African-American people? How our skin ages more slowly? Even though we’re dramatic, we move our faces, we eat higher-fat foods, we’re the ones with fewer wrinkles—it makes you wonder.”
Hayek goes on to talk about her love of food, and her celebrity friend she wishes she could be more like:
“I like to eat. If I eat something salty, it makes me want something sweet. I eat something sweet, then I want salty. And exercise is not my thing, though I do it. Not like Demi [Moore]. She’s so disciplined, I wish I could be like that. You watch, Demi will be back. She’s an inspiration to all women.”
When all else fails, Hayak says you have to have what she calls a ‘Plan B’. She explains:
“What you need is one black dress I call Plan B. It doesn’t have to be fabulous, it just looks good, covers up the problems and is neutral enough for dinner, business, a date, a funeral. You don’t overwear it, you don’t overwash it, because the Plan B is—gold.”
