Mexican American Salma Hayek once shared the screen with Will Smith. While she often plays the role of a strong and independent woman in movies, the 1999 movie Wild Wild West wasn’t an exception. However, her behind-the-scenes experience was certainly one of a kind.
Salma Hayek
Still rising as a prolific actress, teaming up with Will Smith for Wild Wild West was a massive opportunity for Salma Hayek. However, the movie didn’t turn out as groundbreaking as she had imagined. While the 1999 film left a sore spot for Smith, it wasn’t quite preferable for Hayek, as she couldn’t stand certain aspects of the movie.

Salma Hayek Shared The Screen With Will Smith

Salma Hayek, who had been just rising to fame as a Hollywood actress, teamed up with Will Smith for their 1999 film. Looking forward to scoring a groundbreaking performance and achieving the ultimate fame, Hayek was more than thrilled to appear in Wild Wild West. Although the filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld, had been hesitant to cast Hayek, she impressed Smith with her performance and simply made her way into the movie.
Wild Wild West (1999)
Salma Hayek shared,
“When I first looked at the role, it was not interesting. But it was a very big film with good actors and my agent was saying, ‘This is very good, this is going to be a big film.’”
However, in the end, the film failed to perform well, and received a 16% RT rating, despite featuring good actors. Nonetheless, the movie did catapult Salma Hayek to fame, as she had imagined. Hayek was thus able to add Wild Wild West to her list of accomplishments. Following her 1999 movie with Will Smith, the actress mentioned refusing small roles since by then she had become a renowned star, with many big-budget movies under her belt.
Salma Hayek in Wild Wild West
“They just offered me a part in a film where it was again three scenes, this Mexican girl, and I said no and they were shocked,” Salma Hayek mentioned. Detailing an incident that happened after her appearance in Wild Wild West, Hayek mentioned gaining newfound confidence.
“They couldn’t understand until I said ‘No, because I’m a big shot now, because I am in Wild Wild West and I have, like, 10 covers coming out, and I want a bigger part.’”

Salma Hayek’s Experience From Wild Wild West

While Wild Wild West (1999) did launch Salma Hayek into the industry to be a renowned star, her work experience wasn’t up to the mark. The movie notably left a sour spot in Will Smith’s career, but somehow, even Hayek didn’t quite enjoy the experience. Sharing certain aspects from behind the scenes, the Mexican actress mentioned feeling embarrassed quite often.
Hayek shared her filming experience
When the movie was released in theatres, Salma Hayek wasn’t a renowned face and didn’t have a lot of fans. Thus, she was often attacked by critics, which even made her feel like the film was a wrong decision. However, nothing affected her more than the choice of costume she had to wear for Wild Wild West.
“I was never naked in Wild Wild West I felt a lot more naked and embarrassed wearing that stupid costume.”
Hayek revealed Barry Sonnenfeld’s bizarre request
Further, the actress revealed a bizarre request she faced from the director of the film. Although she enjoyed the company of her co-stars and crew, she definitely had a hard time keeping Sonnenfeld’s request. “He tried to convince me the whole movie to smell his left ear, which he claims it smelled like a specific cheese” Hayek shared. She further added how she refused to keep the request, “I said I would not do that” but eventually gave in. “And then at the end of the movie…I did it and it was disgusting,” the actress confessed.

While the movie critically failed and Salma Hayek had several complaints, she eventually enjoyed the company on set and even rose to fame by sharing the screen with Will Smith.

Watch Wild Wild West on Netflix.