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By Angela Dawson
Entertainment News Wire
LOS ANGELES -- It seems fitting that a determined Mexican actress, after years of struggle, should bring to the big screen a film depicting the life of Frida Kahlo, an exceptional Mexican artist whose talent went largely unrecognized until after her death.
Salma Hayek, the star, producer and driving force behind the biopic Frida, says there was something about the woman that convinced her to stick with the project despite numerous obstacles over a seven-year period.
"It was an interesting time that this woman lived in, and she had the courage to be unique,"says the 36-year-old Latin beauty. "She was never conventional about anything she did. She was always herself, though it wasn't easy. She was never apologetic about who she was. She did little paintings that nobody liked. And even though people would never buy them, she kept true to her own style."
Frida chronicles the artist's life from the time she was a teenager to her death in 1954 at age 47. The film begins shortly before Kahlo's near-fatal accident aboard a trolley and continues through her marriage to muralist Diego Rivera (played by Alfred Molina), her relationships with various women and men (including exiled Russian communist leader Leon Trotsky), and her first public art exhibition. Mostly, though, Frida depicts the love story between Kahlo and Rivera.
"It's a completely different love story than I've ever seen," says Hayek, dressed fashionably in a nearly transparent light yellow blouse and skintight black slacks.
Kahlo and Rivera had a most unusual relationship and marriage. Kahlo was bisexual; Rivera was a womanizer. They shared a love of art, and he appreciated and understood her work when no one else did. Yet their styles were very different. Rivera painted vast murals; Kahlo painted small pictures, often of herself. They were an odd looking couple too. Kahlo was small and had distinctive eyebrows and a mustache that became more noticeable as she grew older. Rivera was big and sloppy and towered over his wife.
Hayek understands why Hollywood resisted the story for so long. "It's not a story about falling in love," she observes. "It's a story about staying in love. People don't want to make those movies, because they're not as romantic, and they're very hard to tell."
Getting into the role physically was a bit of a challenge for the stunning actress but one which she took seriously. For example, she dutifully shaved her upper lip so as to grow hair rather than wear a fake mustache, a move she now regrets because it's not very noticeable in the film, yet she has to wax it regularly in real life. "I'm stuck with it," Hayek says with a sigh.
Kahlo suffered tremendously from medical problems caused by the trolley accident and underwent numerous surgeries which provided little relief. But it was through her infirmity that Kahlo discovered her artistic ability, which is depicted in the film.
To give her character an authentic limp, Hayek wore one shoe slightly elevated then tried not to limp, as she thought Kahlo would have done. "When I thought she was very tired or going through a hard time, I would surrender to whatever I did naturally," she recalls.
Playing a determined, self-confident and independent woman inspired the actress. She says she agreed to take on her first directing assignment, a film for Showtime, after wrapping Frida, a challenge she had previously declined. "We don't have enough female role models as directors," insists Hayek, whoseIn the Time of Butterflies aired last year.
Frida director Julie Taymor calls Hayek a "woman's woman" because of her efforts to help and support other women in the industry.
"I feel a sisterhood with all women," explains Hayek. "I don't see women and think of them as competition or with judgment. Women really move me. I feel connected to all kinds of women. And I'm angry because I think we've been mistreated throughout history in different countries, including America."
Born in Coatzaxcoalcos, Veracruz, in southern Mexico, Hayek was the daughter of a wealthy businessman of Lebanese and Mexican descent and a Mexican opera singer. She saw her first Kahlo painting when she was 14, and the image stuck with her. She read up on the artist and even visited what was once Kahlo's home in Mexico City.
Hayek was bitten by the acting bug while in college and dropped out when she landed a role in a Mexican soap opera, Teresa. She became a star in Mexican soaps but decided to try her fortune in the U.S. and headed north without knowing how to speak English.
Upon arriving in Los Angeles in 1991, she began taking acting classes, mostly to learn English. She landed a few gigs, including a recurring role on the TV sitcom Sinbad and minor guest roles on other TV shows. But it was Mexican-American director Robert Rodriguez who gave the brunette beauty her big break when he cast her opposite Antonio Banderas in his 1995 Western, Desperado. Hayek subsequently starred in another Rodriguez film, From Dusk Till Dawn, and most recently completed work on his sequel to Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
"I will always work with Robert Rodriguez, because he's the first person who gave me an opportunity, and it's thanks to him that I'm here today," Hayek says. "He believed in me when nobody else believed in me. I will never forget that. I'm very loyal."
Desperado led to roles in other big studio films, including 54 and Wild, Wild West. All the while, the actress was working behind the scenes to get her Kahlo picture made. But it wasn't until high-profile personalities like Madonna and Jennifer Lopez began expressing an interest in doing their own Frida Kahlo films that Hayek's efforts began to get noticed.
"You have to realize that that was always going to be a small little film," says Hayek. "It still is. It only got a lot of publicity because of gossip. This movie started having publicity when other people wanted to do it."
Hayek persevered through various setbacks. Financing fell through twice, and the screenwriter she liked had to bow out. Her longtime boyfriend, Edward Norton (who makes a brief appearance in the film as Nelson Rockefeller), ultimately volunteered to ghostwrite the final draft, though he is not officially credited because of Writers Guild rules.
Hayek secured the rights to reproduce and use the Kahlo paintings that appear in the film and asked some of her famous Hollywood pals to forego their usual fees to take on supporting roles among them Ashley Judd, Geoffrey Rush and Banderas.
With favorable reviews following the Venice and Toronto film festivals, Frida is now generating Oscar buzz. Hayek says she'd like nothing more than to see director Taymor receive an Academy Award for her efforts. "It would make Frida so happy that through her life story, for the first time a female director wins an Oscar," Hayek declares.
As for her own chances of taking home a statuette next March, the actress refuses to speculate. "I don't want to get excited about it," she says. "I have to stay clear in my mind and stay in the place where I am today, which is I'm proud of the film and I'm disappointed there isn't more controversy, because I thought Frida and Diego were so controversial."
Up next for the actress is a comedy about bad luck called Murphy's Law, in which she plays the role of Murphy. I love it already, she says with a hearty laugh. "Oh, definitely!"
She's also, understandably, an art lover. She owns a few original Kahlo drawings and a handful of Rivera paintings. "I have a small house, I lease my car, and all of my clothes and jewelry are borrowed," she reveals. "But I have some art."
