Salma Hayek is considered one of the most underrated and bold Latina actresses who broke barriers to establish a successful film career. She is most famous for her work in the 2002 film Frida, where she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.
Even though Hayek is bold and courageous, she has a phobia that gives her heebie-jeebies. The star has an extreme, overwhelming fear of snakes (Ophidiophobia) that once she jumped out of her seat during an interview.
Besides her fear, the actress danced with a snake in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn, written by Quentin Tarantino. She played stripper Santanico Pandemonium in the film, where she does a seductive snake dance at the T*tty Twister club.
The scene wasn’t initially in the script, and even Hayek wasn’t signed up for the snake dance (given her fear of snakes), but it was later changed. She had to do it because the fear of job loss was bigger than that of the snake.
Salma Hayek’s Fear of Losing Job Beat Snake Dance Dread
During a 2017 interview with Yahoo’s Role Recall, Salma Hayek shared some memories about playing the part.
“Quentin told me, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re dancing with a snake.”
She recalled:
“I said, ‘I can’t do that, I can’t do that. It’s my greatest fear.’”
The director told Hayek that she had to work through the fear quickly, and if she won’t, he’ll take Madonna to take part instead.
“It was good because I had to overcome my greatest fear. I had to go on trance to do the dance,” she explained. “It was improvised. There was no choreography … because you can’t choreograph a snake, we don’t know what she’s going to do!”
After collaborating with Rodriguez and Tarantino on Four Rooms in 1994, Hayek secured the role due to her prior work in his film Desperado. Rodriguez asked her to be a stripper in From Dusk Till Dawn, hinting she only needed to wear a bathing suit without showing her face.
Hayek recalled being threatened with replacement if she refused to perform the snake dance. She said the snake was not in the script, but she agreed to do the movie anyway. Denying the role was not an option as she really needed to pay the rent at that time.
A Moment When Salma Hayek Freaked Out of Snake in an Interview
Once, Hollywood actress Salma Hayek panicked when she spotted a real snake during a TV interview. The 43-year-old actress jumped out of her seat and climbed on her Grown Ups co-stars Maya Rudolph and Maria Bello upon spotting the serpent while filming an interview with Extra to promote the movie. Hayek was continuously shrieking and saying:
“Somebody do something! Nooo!”
Climbing onto her chair and seeking refuge in Rudolph’s lap, Hayek tried to distance herself from the snake. A crew member (a gay hairdresser) quickly escorted her away. The actress was visibly shaken before she finally left the set entirely.
“Thank you so much,” Hayek said in a trembling voice. Talking about the incident, Bello said,
“It was like a python. It was thick. Its head was like this – like a cobra! She’s (Hayek) split. She’s on the next plane.”
But yes, Rudolph handled the situation very well and helped Hayek to calm down.
Source: E! Online
