‘People assume it stops women being sexy’: Salma Hayek, 54, reveals she pushed to make her action heroine character in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard menopausal

Salma Hayek has revealed that it was her decision to make her action heroine character in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard menopausal.

In the recently-released movie, the actress, 54, plays Sonia Kincaid, the wife of an assassin (Samuel L Jackson), who is on the road with a bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds).

And as she had a level of creative freedom in the sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard, the Oscar-nominated screen star opted to make her menopausal, in a bid to show that women can still very much be sexually attractive at that stage in their life. 

Decision: Salma Hayek has revealed that it was her decision to make her action heroine character in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard menopausal (pictured in 2018)

She told The Sunday Times: ‘For me it was very important to put it in the plot, because it is such a real issue for everyone. People have the wrong assumption that [the menopause] is when a woman stops being sexy.

‘The concept of giving us an expiration date for everything based on your ability to create babies or not is really unfair. It should not define us as women.

‘For so long the concept of beauty in a woman was leaning completely to youth, and I think, f**k that s**t!’

Salma’s latest interview comes after she vehemently denied that she has ever had breast implants, insisting that her breasts ‘just kept growing’ through pregnancy, breastfeeding, and now menopause.

Looking sensational: The screen star, 54, regularly shares social media snaps of herself flaunting her jaw-dropping physique

The actress appeared on an episode of Red Table Talk last week, where she spoke candidly about menopausal symptoms she’s been experiencing for almost a decade.

In addition to mood swings and hot flashes, the star said that her breasts have grown ‘a lot’ — and they’ve grown ‘many sizes’ over the years, so much that her back is ‘suffering’ and people are convinced she’s had work done.

Salma spoke to Red Table Talk hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, 49, Willow Smith, 20, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, 67, about going through the change.

‘I’ll tell you what they don’t tell you. The boobs grow — a lot,’ she said. 

‘For some women they get smaller. But there are some women that when you gain weight, your boobs grow, and other women that when you have children and you breastfeed your boobs grow and they don’t go back down, and then in some of the cases when you are in menopause, they grow again. 

Plot: In the recently-released movie, the actress, 54, plays Sonia Kincaid, the wife of an assassin (Samuel L Jackson, right), who is on the road with a bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds, left)

‘And I just happen to be one of those women that it happened in every, single step! When I gain weight, when I got pregnant, and when I am in menopause.’

She explained that because her breasts have grown over the course of her career, there has been speculation that she got implants — which isn’t the case. 

‘A lot of people said that I had breast augmentation. I don’t blame them! My boobs were smaller! So was the rest of my body,’ she said.

‘But they have just kept growing. Many, many sizes. And my back has been really suffering from it. And not a lot of people talk about this.’

Salma said she first started experiencing menopausal symptoms in her mid-40s, and was given a questionnaire on the subject.

Candid: On Red Table Talk, Salma spoke about how the menopause affected the size of her bosom. Pictured with Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris

Growing: ‘They have just kept growing. Many, many sizes. And my back has been really suffering from it,’ she said (pictured left in 2005 and right in 2020)

‘The questions were terrifying,’ she recalled. ‘They were asking me things like, “Are your ears growing and there’s hair growing out of them? Are you growing a mustache and a beard? Are you easily irritable?

‘”Are you crying for no reason? Are you gaining a lot of weight really fast that doesn’t go away no matter what you do? Are you shrinking?” And then they ask you, “Is your vagina dry?” 

But, she joked, it doesn’t matter if all of those unpleasant things are true, because ‘nobody’s coming near you at night.’ 

She’s had mood swings and hot flashes, but tries to remain positive.

‘I have gone through those periods, I still kind of am, but you got to kind of notice those moments and take a deep breath and kind of say, “Okay, it’ll pass. You got to hold it together.” And also the hot flashes aren’t fun,’ she said. 

Motherhood: The actress said that her breasts grew while she was pregnant with her daughter Valentina, 13. Pictured in 2017 with her daughter and husband François-Henri Pinault, left

But Salma argued against the idea that women are less valuable once they reach that stage in life.

‘There’s no expiration dates for women. That has to go. Because you can kick a** at any age. You can hold your own at any age, you can dream at any age, you can be romantic at age,’ she said. 

‘We have the right to be loved for who we are at the place that we are. We’re not just here to make babies, we’re not just here to baby the men. We’re not just here to service everything and everyone around us and then when the kids go away.

‘It’s almost like expiration date for the eggs, that means expiration date for you as a woman. It’s a misunderstanding that has been going around for centuries.’

Steps: ‘I just happen to be one of those women that it happened in every, single step! When I gain weight, when I got pregnant, and when I am in menopause,’ Salma (seen in January) said

Source: Read Full Article