Salma Hayek: Hollywood Said I’d Be ‘Expired’ By My 40s, But Adam Sandler Changed That

Hey, sultry vampiric snake charmers can be funny too.

In a new profile published by British GQ on Monday, Salma Hayek revealed that she had trouble getting a role in comedy for the first 20 years of her career because she was deemed too sexy for the genre. But the actor also discussed how funnyman Adam Sandler changed all that for her.

“I was typecast for a long time,” Hayek told the magazine. “My entire life I wanted to do comedy and people wouldn’t give me comedies. I couldn’t land a role until I met Adam Sandler, who put me in a comedy [2010’s Grown Ups], but I was in my forties! They said, ‘You’re sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humour.’ ... Not only are you not allowed to be smart, but you were not allowed to be funny in the ’90s.”

Hayek went on to say that although Hollywood made her feel like the only thing she had going for her was her looks, she’s not bitter about it.

“I was sad at the time, but now here I am doing every genre, in a time in my life where they told me I would have expired – that the last 20 years I would have been out of business,” Hayek said. “So I’m not sad, I’m not angry; I’m laughing.”

Hayek’s new film “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” isn’t a comedy. But given the steamy lap dance in the movie’s trailer, it looks like she’s subverting dated expectations and continuing to embrace her sexiness.

The third “Magic Mike” movie sees Hayek play the love interest of the franchise’s eponymous stripper, portrayed by Channing Tatum.

A description for the film, set for release Friday, says that Hayek’s character is a “wealthy socialite” who lures Mike “with an offer he can’t refuse…and an agenda all her own.”

According to her conversation with British GQ, it seems that Hayek sees a little of herself in the role.

“More than being a movie about an older woman falling in love with a younger guy, it’s about a middle-aged woman that has a lot of potential and is sick of being undermined her entire life,” Hayek said.

To read Hayek’s profile in full, head over to British GQ.