Happy birthday, Salma Hayek: Five things you probably didn't know about the actor

Salma Hayek Birthday : Salma Hayek, who is one of the most notable Mexican figures in Hollywood, is celebrating her 56th birthday today. She is best known for her work in the 2002 film ‘Frida’ for which she won an Academy Award nomination. She is the first Mexican to be nominated for the Oscars. In a career spanning over three decades, Salma has won several accolades including Daytime Emmy and Screen Actor’s Guild Award.

Here’s a look at more fun facts about the star Salma Hayek.

Childhood dream

During her appearance on ‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’ in 2017, Salma Hayek disclosed how she fell in love with gymnastics. She said that since there were no class, she was learning the sport herself. The actor said that at age of 9, she ‘begged’ her dad to take her to a gym in Mexico City for the summer. She spent two months there and got drafted for the Olympic team. However, she gave up on her Olympic dream after her father said no as it meant staying in a boarding school, away from her family.

‘I was there two months and I was so focused and so good. At that age, I got drafted for the Olympic team. However, that would mean that I would have to be in a boarding school, six hours a day of gymnastics and they do the studies. And I would have to be away from my family because it's in Mexico City, and my father said no. My Olympic dream died there,’ Hayek said.

Expelled from boarding school

According to Town and Country magazine, the actor was expelled from a Catholic boarding school in New Orleans for pranking the nuns. ‘I was ingenious. I always had a sense of humor, but there was a naïveté in the naughtiness,’ she told the publication.

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First-ever audition

Salma Hayek's first audition was for the role of Jasmine in a children's play of ‘Aladdin’ in Mexico. In an interview with W magazine, the actor revealed that she was just 18 at that time and she had stage fright. ‘It was a horrible experience – I got the job, but the work was a nightmare. I really suffered every day,’ she said.

Creativity is everything

In an interview with Vogue India, Hayek talked about her difficulty in finding designers for public appearances early in her career. She revealed that she wore temporary tattoos at the 1998 MTV Music Video Awards because designers wouldn't loan her jewelry.

‘I had on a very simple black dress and I knew all the other girls were going to have fabulous dresses, beautiful jewelry. And can I tell you something? Instead of giving me a complex and saying that I don't have the best dress or they don't know who I am, I was like, 'I am fabulous.' I painted some butterfly tattoos on myself and I felt happy about myself,’ she said.

Her pet rescue owl

On Valentine’s Day, the actor gifted her husband, Francois-Henri Pinault, a pet rescue owl and named it after his luxury brand Kering. She told People that she decided to adopt the southern white-faced owl after seeing an advertisement about rescue owls. The star has rescued or adopted many pets including alpacas, dogs, parrots, fishes and horses.

Salma Hayek’s ranch serves as a mini animal sanctuary.

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