Salma Hayek, a woman in command of her powers. #Instyle

After blazing her way through Hollywood for over 30 years, Salma Hayek has never been more in command of her powers. The 54-year-old House of Gucci actress spoke out in an interview with InStyle for the July 2021 issue.

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(She Once Thought Being Called a Bombshell in a Review Meant She “Destroyed the Movie”)

On her early career being an actress: “Many people told me, ‘You’re no good, you’re never gonna make it. What if I had listened to those idiots?” Then she corrects herself: “I did listen to them. I would cry myself to sleep, and give up, and then try again just a little bit – almost embarrassed to admit my dream of being an actress.”

On her new role in Marvel Studios blockbuster “I was like, ‘What’s happening?'” she recalls. “I mean, things have changed a lot in the last couple of years for women in general. But what I don’t understand is why this is happening to me.”

On Harvey Weinstein: “Some people got raped. It makes you wonder if you had said something [back then], would it have been different? How come I didn’t have the courage? But I dealt with it to the best of my ability at the time…for me Frida was a political statement, a social statement, a feminist statement. It was my way of screaming. And Harvey used my way of screaming to repress me even more. So I could not let him win.”

On ageing in Hollywood: “[Given] how much mileage I put on my body, and how much pressure and judgment I put on it, my body has been incredibly generous. I don’t think I am some hot tamale, but I know that for my age, for the lifestyle that I lived, I’m not doing too badly. And I attribute all of this to meditation.”

On her marriage to François-Henri Pinault: “We understand each other really well. One friend said, ‘I cannot believe that out of all of us, the one who cares the least about fashion is the one who landed that guy!’ So I told my husband this. He laughed and said, ‘That’s why you landed me.’”

For more from Salma Hayek, head to InStyle.com.