The founder and creative director shares her story
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Director of Photography and Photographer: Séréna Lutton
There’s something surprisingly unfiltered and well, normal about Hollywood superstar Salma Hayek Pinault. The way she talks is conspiratorial, like we’re old cronies and she’s trusting me with a weighty secret. Right now, for example, she’s debating what to wear to the Miami premiere of Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the final instalment of the Magic Mike trilogy in which she stars opposite Channing Tatum (more than a decade after the original left us all feeling very hot under the collar). It’s a role which demonstrates her range as an actor and puts women’s sexual needs at the forefront.
“I think a lot of women, especially women of my generation, feel we didn’t have enough opportunities and people didn’t take us seriously”
PHOTOGRAPHER: SILVIA OLSEN
EDITOR IN CHIEF: ANDREA THOMPSON
EDITOR: SUNIL MAKAN
FASHION EDITOR: NATALIE HUGHES
SENIOR designer: treasa Burns
PRODUCER: SOFIA PIZA
MAKE-UP & hair STYLIST: AUSTRI JORDAN
LOCATION: E.L.V DENIM STUDIOS
FASHION: FASHION: DRESS, SAINT LAURENT; CORSET, STYLIST’S OWN; NECKLACE AND RINGS, QEELIN
“I’m not going to resign myself to being an actress that only does highbrow films, or commercial ones. Why do I have to be one or the other?”
FASHION: TOP, BOTTEGA VENETA; EARRING, QEELIN
“Once you’re in it, you have to commit and be that character. There is no space for fear”
FASHION, FIRST IMAGE: TOP, BOTTEGA VENETA; SKIRT, SAINT LAURENT; EARRINGS, QEELIN FASHION, SECOND IMAGE: TOP, BOTTEGA VENETA; SKIRT, SAINT LAURENT; EARRINGS AND RINGS,QEELIN
“When you’re present you forget certain things; I’m not thinking about how old I am when I wake up. I don’t even look in the mirror”
FASHION: TOP, BOTTEGA VENETA; SKIRT, SAINT LAURENT; EARRING, QEELIN
FASHION: TOP, SAINT LAURENT; EARRINGS, QEELIN
“I’m not afraid to be afraid”
FASHION: BLAZER, BRIONI; NECKLACE AND BRACELETS, QEELIN
CREDITS:
DIRECTOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER: YU TSAI
EDITOR IN CHIEF: ANDREA THOMPSON
SHOOT AND FILM DIRECTOR: LISA OXENHAM
WRITER: SOPHIE GODDARD
SENIOR ART EDITOR: ANA OSPINA
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR: NICOLA MOYNE
PRODUCER: SOFIA PIZA
MAKE-UP ARTIST: SCOTT BARNES AT SIX K
STYLISTS: ROB ZANGARDI AND MARIEL HAENN AT FORWARD ARTISTS, USING QEELIN
HAIR STYLIST: PETER SAVIC AT OPUS BEAUTY, USING NAVY HAIR CARE
NAIL ARTIST: BETINA GOLDSTEIN AT THE WALL GROUP
PRODUCTION AND POST PRODUCTION: 88 PHASES
VIDEOGRAPHER: GREG WONDER
STYLING ASSISTANT: RUM BRADY
LOCATION: DUST STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES
We’re speaking via Zoom – Hayek Pinault from her north London home – and she’s uncharacteristically nervous. “I might chicken out, it’s something I’ve never done before,” she explains of the revealing Oscar de la Renta dress she’s eyeing up, telling me that her 15-year-old daughter Valentina is firmly in favour of it. “But I asked her, ‘Is it too sexy? Too provocative?’” recounts Hayek Pinault. “She told me, ‘Oh, I don’t mind that, it’s appropriate for the movie – just make sure they make it really tight on you because I want to wear it afterwards’. That’s families…” Hayek Pinault shrugs affectionately and I hear that familiar deep, husky laugh.
Hayek Pinault’s casting as Maxandra Mendoza in the film – a wealthy socialite who falls for Tatum’s character, Mike – resulted in a deluge of media coverage after she was brought in to replace Thandie Newton. Did the franchise’s reputation for raunchiness worry her? “No,” she replies. “When I read the script, I had preconceptions, but it surprised me because the woman’s point of view is extremely prominent. What attracted me was the concept of a woman who feels undermined. She’s at a moment in her life [where she’s] asking, ‘Who am I and what’s my contribution?’. I think a lot of women, especially women of my generation, feel we didn’t have enough opportunities and people didn’t take us seriously.”
Now 56, with a staggering amount of blockbusters under her belt, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and still in demand for leading roles, Hayek Pinault is in her prime. Formerly a Mexican soap star (she was born in Mexico to parents of Lebanese and Spanish-Mexican descent) Hayek’s big break came in the form of Desperado (1995) opposite Antonio Banderas. A flurry of Hollywood hits followed, including Tarantino’s From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999) and the critically-acclaimed Frida (2002), which won her an Oscar nomination for her powerful portrayal of Frida Kahlo.
There’s her lesser-known work as a producer too, with projects including Ugly Betty (2006-2010) and the 2014 adaptation of The Prophet (Hayek Pinault set up her own LA-based production company, Ventanarosa Productions, in 1998 to focus on diverse, female-driven narratives). However, it’s her most recent acting roles that telegraph her impressive range, from Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021) with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson to Marvel action hit Eternals (2021) with Angelina Jolie, and biographical crime drama House of Gucci (2021) alongside Lady Gaga. She’s also just wrapped a second project with Jolie, Without Blood, which Jolie directed – “I’ve never felt more understood as an actress,” Hayek Pinault says of the experience.
So, besides the female angle, what appealed to her about Magic Mike’s Last Dance? “When it comes to [taking on] a character, the criteria is, ‘Can I do the movie and not be apart from my family for more than two weeks?’,” she says, frankly. “I’ve been doing that for 16 years… it limits my choices; there have been projects where I’ve had to pull out because I was going to be away for two weeks and I couldn’t afford to do that.” She’s not talking financially, of course, although Hayek Pinault and her husband – French businessman François-Henri Pinault, who is the CEO of Kering, which owns brands Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga – do prefer to keep their finances separate. “Imagine what that does to my children; imagine how good that is for my children to see,” she adds.
Hayek Pinault cites other non-negotiables when it comes to taking on a new project, too, including her co-stars – “I’ve done movies where I don’t like the script but they’re my friends,” she confesses, but nothing is off-limits. “I’m not going to resign myself to being an actress that only does highbrow films, or commercial ones. Why do I have to be one or the other?” She strikes me as somebody who hates being put in a box. Is that fair? “I’m super-claustrophobic, but nothing makes me more claustrophobic than that,” she replies. “I also like to change – that’s my goal. What don’t I know about myself that I’m going to discover? I believe in change – that’s the only form of evolution. So yeah, I don’t like to be put in a box and I chose the perfect profession for that.”
Indeed, Hayek Pinault found an unexpected kindred spirit in her co-star Tatum while shooting Magic Mike. “I was like, ‘Why do I feel like he’s my cousin or something?’. Then I realised, From Dusk Till Dawn took me somewhere surprising through dance. And, for Channing, this [franchise] was [the same] – we had similar experiences in the business. And the other thing is that in this movie, instead of me doing the dance for the guys, the guy had to dance for me. It felt like a full circle of empowerment.”
Signing onto the film also meant casting aside any preconceived notions. “I came [into it] with certain ideas of what it would be like and found myself changing my mind,” she says. “I had my own perception of strippers, but they were so lovely. They started coming to my house, and François was like, ‘You’re right, they’re just nice, good people’. That was humbling and I was disappointed in myself that I went in with a preconception.”
The dance scenes were physically demanding, of course, but Hayek Pinault is well-versed – she’s been doing her own stunts since her twenties. “I always enjoy the satisfaction of saying, ‘I still can do it’,” she says. “Once you’re in it, you have to commit and be that character. There is no space for fear.” I tell her she appears fearless and she retorts, “I’m not afraid to be afraid. I don’t know if I’m fearless. I was fearless before I had children. Then I became somebody who worries about everything.”
Hayek Pinault and her husband now call London home, having relocated from Paris nine years ago. “I’m not a jetsetter in London. It’s a different type of life, but I love it; I love the energy of it.” She and Pinault will have been married for 14 years and live with their teenage daughter Valentina. Pinault also has three children (sons François and Augustin, and daughter Mathilde) from previous relationships. Hayek Pinault talks about them with protective pride. When I ask about her daughter, for example, she gently clarifies, “I have four [children] and right now only one [Valentina] is living with us, but I have four. I live for them.”
I point out that her willingness to make such significant sacrifices for her family – down to dropping a project – isn’t something you hear many Hollywood actors shouting about. “And it’s the dogs! And cows!” she adds (Hayek Pinault has amassed something of a zoo, rescuing everything from dogs and cats to alpacas and birds). “It’s an easy decision, because when you have kids, that’s a commitment for life. They need you. I thought that was going to mean I stopped working, and I was OK with that. But shockingly, I’ve never worked more. When I was available, I wasn’t getting all these offers! It’s when I’m prepared to give it up – because age is also a factor – that somehow it works out.”
Yet ageing doesn’t particularly concern her. “It’s about being in the present and being alive,” she says. “When you’re present you forget certain things; I’m not thinking about how old I am when I wake up. I don’t even look in the mirror. Though, sometimes when I do look in the mirror I go, ‘Oh Jesus’,” she cackles. “Or I’ll think ‘How come I’m always tired?’ and I’ll remember, ‘Ah, I’m older now’. When it dawns on me, I make the effort to connect with life again.”
Much of that reconnection involves charity work. For years Hayek Pinault has fundraised for charities and not-for-profit organisations, including UNICEF and the Kering Foundation, which she founded with her husband in 2009. She’s still involved with the gender-equality campaign Chime for Change, too, which she co-launched with Gucci and Beyoncé 10 years ago. “We are very friendly, I love her. Her and Jay-Z, I have a lot of admiration for them.” She also sits on the board of non-profit Girl Effect and is an advisory board member of The Cameron Boyce Foundation, which aims to cure epilepsy. Why take on so much? “For me, it’s just part of life. It’s kind of a reverse question, really – why wouldn’t you?”.
As we wrap up, I ask Hayek Pinault about her hopes for the future. Her first thought is family: “That they are healthy, in body and soul and mind”. And career-wise? “I’m just amazed that at my age I’m still working and having the best moment of my career. At this point I’m just grateful.”
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, she wore the dress.
“I’m just amazed that at my age I’m still working and having the best moment of my career”
