Salma Hayek in ‘Black Mirror’
“I am a dyslexic and talented actress, with questionable English!” Salma Hayek shouts in an episode of the new season of Black Mirror and makes us burst out laughing. It is a short and concise phrase but it perfectly sums up the figurative tsunami that this Mexican actress represents as a Hollywood star.
As a Latina representative, a comic actress and a woman with a wonderful sense of humor who knows, and loves, to laugh at herself. Because that’s what Salma does in her debut on the popular series created by Charlie Brooker: interpret herself as a actress and businesswoman, being in charge of bringing freshness and comedy to a dark satire.
And along the way, he shows Hollywood that they have been losing the comic cream within him for years. The sixth season of Black Mirror landed on Netflix on June 15 with six episodes that, although they reflect a certain narrative wear, return us to that universe captivating that critically analyzes the dark potential of living with technology, new trends in social interaction or the interests of modern humanity.
In this case, for example, putting on the table the debate on the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) on the artistic individuality of each actor, or the massive desire of the public for series and documentaries on true crimes, among other topics.
Salma Hayek participates in the first titled Joan is horrible, which tells how a streaming service identical to Netflix (in fiction it is called Streamberry) recreates a series based on the life of an anonymous woman after having included a tiny clause in the contract that all subscribers sign when subscribing to any platform.
The one that no one reads. Never. Annie Murphy plays Joan, while Salma Hayek plays her character on the Strawberry series. Joan’s every day is reflected in the following episode, dramatizing and exaggerating her selfishness to the point of turning her into a villain, turning her existence upside down overnight. that the series is completely created by Artificial Intelligence and thus, in desperation of not having any legal tool to stop the platform, it decides to do grotesque and disgusting things that embarrass the real Salma Hayek so much that the actress ends up taking action on the matter .
It is then when, after seeing her playing the most despicable Joan of hers, that the Mexican actress appears playing herself, capturing her fury against those who misuse her image, laughing at her accent and celebrating the her talent. All in one package, she does it by including words in Spanish in her moments of unleashed rage, talking about her grandmother and exposing her dyslexia, while she openly acknowledges that thick accent that characterizes her so much. And without forgetting to celebrate herself, the actress of “prestigious” films like Frida.
And throughout this process where she plays herself -which barely lasts 20 minutes- Salma Hayek dusts off that funny comedian that the cinema still He couldn’t make the most of it. She makes us laugh, she keeps us hooked on her unleashed rage, on every insult in English released with a Mexican accent, on the spontaneity that she exudes, putting her personality at the command of the series. Annie Murphy shines as Joan but Salma’s is pure comic light, playing between satirical, sitcom and ‘buddy comedy’ like we haven’t seen it before.
Ben Barnes and Salma Hayek in ‘Black Mirror’ Spanish-speaking people always knew that Salma Hayek is funny. We see it on her social networks, in her meetings with other stars on red carpets and in countless interviews, where she always openly ventilates all her mischief and spontaneous sense of humor, as a faithful representative of culture. latina.
But also being herself without the glamor that her professional world demands stealing her naturalness. However, from the beginning of her career, the Hollywood industry insisted on squeezing her facet as a sex symbol with films like Desperado or From Twilight to dawn, while she always tried to spread her wings with all kinds of stories. She went through drama, horror, romantic comedy, blockbuster, and independent film, but I don’t think she ever made us laugh with the same spontaneity that she gets in Black Mirror.
I couldn’t help but reflect on this while watching her in action. . In that every time she had a comedy on her hands, especially in recent years, she ended up being a secondary vehicle for other people’s jokes, as was the case with Adam Sandler in They are like children and its sequel; or with Eugenio Derbez in How to be a Latin lover. While other films missed that trick by tending towards caricature, as was the case with Partners in War. But in Black Mirror she had a great time.
“It has been absurd and a lot of fun. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do an interpretation of myself,” she told the Radio Times (via Uproxx). And she shows. Because the actress shows in the series that she has a gift for comedy that cries out for her own satire, an intelligent sitcom or even a reality show where we can shamelessly enjoy her sense of humor.
The episode makes it very clear that the actress deserves to be the protagonist of something that makes the most of her talent to be funny, without being secondary filler for Adam Sandler or a caricature of her accent or her Latin nature. So Hollywood can start thinking about a good comedy to offer him. Because seeing the reactions on social networks to her work in Black Mirror, I think there will be many of us who would go see it without thinking twice.
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