It wasn't going to be in theaters! This was the process that Salma Hayek went through to produce 'Frida'

In 2002 Salma Hayek made the international jump in her career after she starred in the biographical film of Frida Kahlo, which made her be nominated for important awards such as the Oscars. Something that perhaps few people know is that the Veracruz woman went through many difficulties to make the film. In an interview she gave for GQ Mexico, Salma Hayek revealed the reasons why she decided to produce Frida Kahlo's film, in addition to all the problems she had to go through in order to make the production a success and be recognized. . The actress said that the painter is a heroine for her, and that she wanted to show how great Mexico is.

“It was important for me to show that my country is full of sophistication and how at that time all the great thinkers, the whole world came to Mexico. It just comes out of the stereotypes that were used for all Latin American characters at the time, in the late '90s because remember, I was trying to do this (the movie) for a long time."

“There are so many things about her like her courage to be unique, plus there was not only the situation in Mexico, a way to also physically show Mexico that was so beautiful, the colors of Mexico, the light of Mexico, the art of Mexico, the music of Mexico, the sophistication and the cultural richness”. Salma Hayek recalled that she was in charge of being involved in all the details of the film because she did not have the support of production houses, she also said that other people who tried to make a film about Frida Kahlo faced that they were not granted the rights to the paintings, for this, the actress met with Dolores Olmedo.

 “I became friends with Dolores Olmedo, I learned a lot from her and she told me: 'You have to court me.' I ended up courting her for a couple of years and we became really good friends and she was like, 'You caught me in hello, I was always going to give you this, I just wanted you near me' and I was like, 'You caught me too, I would have stayed close to you.'” The Veracruz woman said that she had to negotiate with several places where a movie had never been recorded to allow her to do some scenes of Frida and even mentioned that the actors who appear in the film "did it as a favor."

Although she had already managed to finish the film, Salma Hayek commented that she faced a new problem: they did not want Frida to be released in the cinema, at first they agreed to project it in one, but thanks to the success achieved, it reached more screens. “In post-production I was so emotionally and physically drained from the trip that I said, 'I did it' and walked away for a while, but when I was going to leave I had to intervene again because they were going to put it only on television and we had to convince Harvey Weinstein to put it in theaters, but they said it wasn't worth it."