SALMA HAYEK
LATINA SUPER BABE
Santa Barbara International Film Festival welcomes
Hollywood’s favorite Latina.

On February 2, the Red Carpet was rolled out for Salma Hayek and the rest of the cast of “Ask the Dust” at the Arlington Theater to night to kick off the 2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The much anticipated film, in which Hayek stars against Colin Farrell, is an adaptation by Robert Towne of John Fante’s Depression-era novel. Hayek plays stunningly sexy Camilla, a barmaid who hopes to rise above her station by marrying a well-off American, but runs into complications after meeting Arturo Bandini (Farrell). A first-generation Italian, Arturo moves to Los Angeles to become a novelist and meet a blonde beauty. As his writing career flourishes, he encounters and becomes obsessed with Camilla.

Widely considered the first Mexican actress to hit Hollywood since Dolores del Rio, Hayek is known for bringing fiery presence and striking dark-eyed beauty to the screen. Born in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, in 1966 to a Spanish mother and Lebanese father, the Latina started out as a soap opera star back in Mexico, but left her flourishing career to come to Los Angeles. Here, she struggled with being taken seriously until she landed the role as supporting actress in “Mi Vida Loca” in 1993. Shortly thereafter, she was discovered by director Robert Rodriquez, who cast her in his 1995 film “Desperado.”

Rodriquez’s big budget sequel to “El Mariachi,” “Desperado” put Hayek on the Hollywood map. And when the acclaimed director also cast her in his next movie, “From Dusk Till Dawn,” it was clear the actress was here to stay. Over the years, Hayek has starred in a number of films, among them “The Faculty,” “Dogma,” “Fools Rush In” and “Wild, Wild West.” In 2002, she earned an Oscar nomination for her outstanding performance in “Frida.”
In “Ask the Dust,” Hayek is in full blossom as Camilla. She brings her character to full emotional life as she engages in a self-destructive, even if momentarily fulfilling, back and forth game with Bandini. The film, executively produced by Tom Cruise, has all the earmarks of an American classic: an Academy Award winning screenwriter adapts a timeless love story, set in Depression plagued downtown L.A., with some of Hollywood’s biggest names on the roll call—in addition to Hayek and Farrell, the all-star cast includes Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins and Idina Menzel.

But don’t expect “Ask the Dust” to be your typical Hollywood love flick. Sure, the film is a fascinating tale of a young man in love; but it is a young man as much in love with a beautiful, passionate woman as with his writing and the city itself. In fact, according to the likes of Charles Bukowski and Towne himself, the book is one of the greatest novels ever written about Los Angeles.