Life Advice From Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek recently sat down for an interview with Net-a-Porter's The Edit. Here are some highlights from that interview:

TO ALL WOMEN: YOU ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH
"We are a lot more demanding of ourselves than men are. It’s a horrible sensation – we’re not enough at work; we’re not enough for the guy who’s cheating on us; we’re not enough for our children who always want more of us, no matter what we give. My husband has a company that is very feminist [Hayek is married to François-Henri Pinault, the chairman and CEO of luxury fashion conglomerate Kering]. They do a lot of studies on how to empower women and I’ve learned some really interesting details. Women work harder than men and are more demanding of themselves, yet they have the sensation they don’t do enough, and therefore they are less daring about asking for a better position or salary. Men do a lot less, they are less demanding on themselves and their standards are lower, yet they feel entitled to ask for a raise or a promotion."

AMBITION IS A GOOD THING 
"I wanted everything, but I wanted to be a good person, and I wanted to get it with principles – that’s true ambition. The other type is desperation. My biggest ambition now is to become an organized person. It might seem like nothing, but I’m telling you, I’ve been trying it for 50 years and I still can’t do it. In parts of my life I am disorganized; a procrastinator. My god, that’s been a hard one to conquer. If I don’t want to do certain things, I don’t do them. I am a rebel in that way. And then I get into trouble, like when you don’t do your homework at school. I am better with exercise, I am better with food, but I am still not where I should be; I am getting older and I still don’t have the discipline. I always find excuses for myself – and they’re all brilliant, by the way. I will sometimes say, ‘I am 50 years old! Why do I have to look good? I already got my guy!’ But then, I don’t want to lose the guy, either."

SWEAR FREELY AND OFTEN
"Swearing? We can do the whole interview on this topic. I come from a part of Mexico that is known for its swearing [Hayek is from Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz]. When you are really passionate about a situation, like if you make a huge mistake or you’ve just crashed into another car, you cannot just say, ‘Oops.’ I don’t like swearing to insult people, though; I don’t agree with that. My daughter is not allowed to swear because she’s nine. I don’t swear in front of her. But she asked me the most brilliant question. She said, ‘Mom, sometimes I’m really angry at something, and I feel like swearing but I know it’s wrong, so can I make up my own swear word? Then when I say the word, the frustration comes out?’ I thought that was brilliant. There is a lot of swearing in my new movie [The Hitman’s Bodyguard, co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds], and it’s a must for my character [Sonia Kincaid, the wife of an assassin]. If you’re going to be married to Samuel L. Jackson..."

Read the full interview at Net-a-Porter.