Salma Hayek Pinault: Starting The Year Off Hot! 49:04

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Hey there, everyone, and happy new year. What better way to start off 2024 than with one of my favorite interviews with my incredible friend, Salma Hayek Pino. We talk about it all, and she shares about her friendship with Prince, overly friendly airline neighbors, and how she keeps her body in check. Happy listening.

Oh my God, am I going to get into trouble? I don't want a lot of people. I only want, disclaimer, only Kelly Ripa can ask me this question. You're listening to this and you're going to interview me. You can skip it, honey. Somebody got to cue me or do I cue myself? Cue yourself. Okay. Hey there, everyone. We are back with another episode of Let's Talk Off Camera. Today, we are joined by major, major, major, major, that's four majors, movie star,

Get ready for the name drop. You ready? Yeah. Salma Hayek. Excuse me. This may require fake cigarette smoking. We'll pick up that name for you. Yes, thank you very much. Hello. Oh, there she is. Oh, hi, beauty. My girl. I'm very excited about this. I'm so excited. I'm looking at her right now. I can see her. She hasn't slept, and I hope I don't disappoint.

She's here. She's gorgeous. She's a director, okay? A producer. She's a double Virgo. She's a double Virgo. I should let her do her own intro. Yeah, I should. She's a writer, an Oscar-nominated actress. She's a bona fide superstar. Please welcome the one and only Salma Hayek Pinal.

Um, let me just say something. I know you haven't slept, but you are absolutely gorgeous. I'm gonna, I'm gonna brag. I've seen Salma on vacation. We were staying at the same place at the same time. I've seen her.

Fresh out of the water, on the beach, no makeup, wet hair, full mom mode. And I can honestly say easily the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen with the most gorgeous body I've ever seen. I would say it's unfair, but you are such a kind person.

lovely, normal person. I can't even be mad at it. Thank you. I really appreciate your delusion. You know, people go nuts. You post a photo on social media and people go absolutely crazy. I read in, maybe it was the Daily Mail, that you showed some gray hairs. I saw a singular gray hair, but the headline said you stunned the world with your makeup-free photo featuring a singular gray hair.

What I want to know is why do you only, you're like Mark, you only have one gray hair. Is it Mexican jeans that doesn't allow for gray hair? Is that what it is? No, I think you need to upgrade your glasses. I'm putting my glasses back on. But do me a favor. Don't put them on where you're watching my Instagram. I like it this way. You know, I think the trick is to put some really glamorous pictures and then they're grateful when you look like shit.

You mean I'm doing it wrong. I'm posting the normal photos and then once in a while a glamour shot. No, you do it the other way around. And then when you put those, it's like, okay.

Yes, we like you when you don't look good. She's right. She's right. Because, you know, once a year, Salma, I make Jan Chalet, who is here sitting next to me, take a picture of me at the Academy Awards. And I'm in a beautiful gown. And I post it and people are like, ah, wow.

Too filtered. And I'm like, no, I just am like, I actually, it's like makeup. It's not even. And good light. The time we spend on the lighting. Yes, of course. And you know, my mom says, stop pulling your hair up because that's what I do. I pull the hair up. Yeah, you do that. I did that before. And I get a headache and I suffer it.

And she goes, don't do that. People are saying that you have plastic surgery. And I say, oh, I take it as a compliment at this point. But I do the opposite trick with my husband. Yeah. I look like shit every day in the house. And this way, when we go out, he's like, wow. Because if he gets used to like those standards inside of the house, there's nowhere to go.

I've got to tell you something. - It's a lot of work. - You two, now Mark and I are very, you know, we've been together a long time. We love each other. We've got a great marriage. - And it shows. - But you two are another level. I have never seen such affection. You're almost like still on your honeymoon. You two are the most affectionate couple I have ever met in my life. And it was so refreshing and joyful to witness

two people that could not keep their hands off each other. Oh my. Does that disgust your children? No, they're used to it. How did you two meet? Tell me how you met.

oh God, I never like to tell this story. I don't like to tell this story because it's so perfect, so wonderful. People are going to think I'm making it up. And also because I want to keep it like, I want to keep it special. If you repeat it a lot of times, it loses the specialness. But I can tell you this. He saw me in a restaurant and I didn't see him. Okay. And he knew who I was, but he didn't know I was crazy. Okay.

And he could hear the conversations and he could see the amount of food I was eating and...

you must have the best metabolism on earth. Oh, no. Yeah, but Kelly, this is 17 years ago. I can't pull that off anymore. I saw you half a year ago, and I was like, wow, God loves Salma more. Yeah, and then I got home and went on a severe diet because what I was doing before is like always yo-yoing. And I'm really proud. I discovered a technique to get it off and keep it off.

It took me a while. In my 50s, I discovered this out of desperation. What's the technique? The technique is I started losing it because I would not go past something. I would get frustrated. I'm like, what's the point? I might as well just eat. It's too late. I'm so far away from my target. I lost and then I got stuck. And I said, you know what? It's okay. Now this is my weight and it's going to be good enough for me.

And so I'm going to just work hard at keeping it, but hard enough that is possible for my possibilities and not impossible, which I was trying to do. And so I rode that plateau and eventually, without trying too hard, I lost a little bit.

So I said, oh, my God, now I'm going to push it. And I lost a little bit, and then I stayed there for a long time. And then I found it. And then I lost a little bit, and then I stayed. So slowly, it's been two years. Amazing. It's been two years, and you just got to, like, kind of learn to settle, which is hard. And you don't weigh yourself, right? Every day. Are you kidding me? Every day. Oh, you do. Oh, I wake up, that's the first thing I do. Because you have to control the area, right?

So that you don't go, what? Too much. Some days I'm not good. And then I say, okay, I'm going to be extra good today. But it's different than to say I've gone so far away that now how am I going to lose all this weight? And so little by little, and I'm not where I used to be, but I'm okay. I'm okay. Well, you have a chaotic schedule. Yeah. And you have, I mean, I can't imagine...

how busy you are and yet you're still like a very present wife, you're a very present mother, you're very present in your family's life, you're a present person. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you had like seven clones because I'll see you in the newspaper at Cannes Film Festival and yet then I'll see you also on a film set and simultaneously I see a picture of you in London and I think,

she is somehow always traveling and I think traveling is enormously taxing oh my god tell me about it if you're trying to maintain a weight the worst thing is travel it's the worst yeah especially because I get very anxious on plane it's I'm getting more and more anxious as I get older

And I just want to eat the whole way. And I'm not a good sleeper on the plane. I got to tell you something funny. Coming to New York, I was on the plane three hours to take off. It was the most bizarre thing. Different reasons, one after the other. And people were getting really, you know, we were on the plane.

And somebody, you know, next to me, this lovely woman, lovely woman said to me, can I take a picture? We haven't even taken off.

And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I have no makeup. I am exhausted. Please, I need to relax because I get straight to work. Okay, but then will you take it with my daughter? Who is like 20? And I'm like, no, no, please, please. I'm not taking a photo with somebody who's 20. Finally, we take off. I try to lay down and go to sleep.

I'm still not sleeping, but my eyes are closed. I move. I move a little bit. And all of a sudden, the little blanket moves. And I feel this creepy movement of the blanket going up. And then I tap. I open one eye to see, like, what the heck is happening? The woman's tucking me in. The one next to me who wanted to take the picture is tucking me in. She's tucking you in? And she discovers that I kind of opened my eye a little bit. And she goes...

I just don't want you to get cold. I'm just like covering you back up.

And I want to say, like, please don't do that. It creeps me out. I need my space. But of course, instead I said, oh, thank you. You know? And then I go, oh, my God, what do I do? I can't go to sleep. She's going to take a picture of me. Like, she's going to get in bed with me talking. I don't know what's going to happen if I go to sleep. This is like a horror movie. It sounds like you got trapped in a horror movie. I still cannot sleep. And apparently I move without knowing anything.

And she does it to my feet. So this time I just kind of pulled my feet in, didn't open my eyes, didn't say thank you. But I couldn't sleep the whole way here. So it takes a toll when it makes you want to eat when strangers try to talk you in the airplane bed. And so...

I guess it gives me anxiety. I'm claustrophobic and I don't... traveling, it's really stressful. It really is. Especially for you. Oh yeah, I know. Albert is here. Wait a minute. Come here. Albert is here and Albert goes, "When did you realize the woman tucking you in was Kelly Ripa?" Oh, I wish. I wouldn't have mind if you snuggled in there with me and took pictures.

Kira is such an asshole. And you know, you were saying something about being present. I just, I'm trying now to have moments when I'm present in a different way and find the space to be comfortable because I don't even know what to do when there is not a thousand things to do. I have my meditation. That's what saves me. But

I want to like carve the space to hang out with friends. I want to be present in a different way in things that I've kind of abandoned in the past. Are you still taking every job that comes your way or do you turn most of them down now? No, I'm turning a lot down. Most of them down. That's good. And you know what's really exciting? There was a time where all the movies were about the guys.

And if you got the lead with an actor where it's a big actor and you're just like, it's kind of the female lead, they would call it. But you're really barely in the movie and you have no character. But that was still considered like a great accomplishment. Right. And now I get those scripts where before I would have gone like, absolutely. And I go, oh, no, no, no, no, dudes. It's a different time.

You know, we're like, you want us in your movie? Write a real rule.

You know, and more and more, a lot of us are doing it and it feels so good to pass. But it's hard, though. I think it's hard for actors because, you know, I'm married to an actor. And so I know that actors always have the fear in the back of their mind that if they turn the job down, there won't be another offer. It's that that gnawing feeling. I always have that feeling.

but it's easier to pass when it's bigger than you and you're doing it for a purpose yeah yeah you know times have changed you want us in your movies give us some dignity

You worked with Mike White. Oh, my God. I love him so much. I have such a fantasy of you starring in The White Lotus. Oh, in The White Lotus. No, he didn't write me a part for that. But he wrote me a movie. I know he did, but will he write you a part in The White Lotus? And if he did, would you do it? Absolutely. I would do anything with Mike. I have a fantasy of acting with Mike. We're so good together.

Yeah. He's a great actor. Oh, he's a fantastic actor. We're very funny together. He's a very, very dear friend.

I am obsessed with what he does with sound and how he combines it with images. But it's hard for me to do series because I'm still very present with my daughter and my husband and my dogs and the house. And so just like I can't, even though I'm trying to carve more space, I can't like say...

Okay, bye. I'm going to go do a series. See you in three months, in four months. I just can't. I can't. Yeah. Not yet. You're close, though. You're close because Valentina is how old? They go to college. I know. Yeah. She's your youngest, right? Yeah. I'm telling you, you'll be sobbing. A switch will go off.

And you'll realize that you've sacrificed for many, many, many years and now you're free. And again, they come home, you will see them all the time. It's not like you're no longer a mom, you no longer have children. They come back all the time. As you know, with the older kids, you see them, but it's different. You have more freedom.

You have freedom to pick and choose what you do and where you go and how long you're gone for. But I have that actor thing that I hope that I'm not too old for that freedom for my work because I started quite late. So I might be 70 by then. No, stop. Stop.

You still look like you're 30 years old. I mean, you really do. I'm not just saying that. I think that there's something about, I don't know if it was like your grandmother's wisdom, because we've talked about that before on the talk show. I don't know if it's just your lifestyle. No, it's not my lifestyle. Have you still never had Botox? No Botox. You're amazing. I know what it is.

Because of a lot of pain in my body and health issues, somehow I developed this strange meditation that I keep evolving. I can do it for hours because you don't feel the time and it's so much fun because it's not like you sit there and you think of nothing. It's actually feeling the energy and it moves and it dances inside of you and different feelings and sensations. So I do a lot of the frequency machines.

The different kinds of frequencies. And they work on me better than on anyone. And just the meditation itself, sometimes when I'm doing it, people tell me when I come out of the room, oh my God, again, you look 20. Yeah, you look 20 years old. And I think that because of that, maybe, when I do these frequency machines, they work, it is so noticeable on me. It is so noticeable on me.

We got to get the frequency machine. Oh, you know, radio frequency, micro frequency. Yeah, we had one. We had one on the show today. You charge it and then you put this gel on your face and it gives you like electricity. But is that what you mean by meditation? No. No, she's saying she meditates and then because the meditation changes,

is like an energetic kinetic meditation. It's my theory. It's not been scientifically proven. Her theory is that maybe those machines work better on her. The people that do the machines say...

that the results I get, not everybody. They don't get with other people. Do you ever miss a day of meditation? Yeah, yeah, but I can do five minutes. It can be very powerful. Well, when I don't do it for some time, guess what? Not only the face starts to drop and everything starts to drop, my herniated disc, the problem in my neck, the problem in my hip, my ankles, I start breaking down like this.

My husband doesn't believe in it. So Francois, he doesn't meditate? He doesn't meditate and he really doesn't want to believe in energy. He really tries hard not to. But when it's really bad...

She kind of says, have you been doing your yoga? She won't even call it that. Yeah, right, right. He won't call it meditation. He calls it yoga. Yeah. And sometimes, like, we have to do something and I cannot walk. And he goes, why don't you take a minute to do your yoga? She doesn't ask any questions. It really freaks him out.

So let me ask you a question. If I were to stumble upon you meditating, what would I see? What would it look like? Are you moving? Are you chanting? Are you silent? Are you still? What's happening? This is a very interesting question. Sometimes I feel I have to stand up. I listen to my body. And it's weird things. I got to put this chair and put my legs. It's almost like listening to your instincts that we second guess all day.

We are always looking for the strong sensation. But I always say if I had to say like one thing, it's to say that the sublime is in the subtle. Like notice little things, little things in your body. Where the pain is, that's never where it's originating from. There's another part of your body where you have to focus the energy and you have to scan your body and listen to your instincts and go there. But that's when you're trying to heal. But what I do every day is,

Most of the times I start still, there is movement. But you have to learn to let your body move on its own and not you moving your body. Moving your body. So you're almost disconnecting.

I get out of the way because the body is so wise. So this is not a guided app meditation. No, no. It's my own invention. I can't believe we're talking about this and you're getting me to talk so much about it. But it's interesting because I'll tell you why. There's a reason I'm asking you these questions. Albert, who meditates every day,

has been trying to teach Jan and me to meditate. Unsuccessfully. We are very bad at meditation. Terrible. We have a lot of pent up energy. We find that we could have gone for a run in the amount of time that Albert wants us to channel our inner, whatever the fuck it is he's trying to get us to channel. We have noisy brains and we don't,

disconnect from the noise. And so I'm trying to get a mental picture. Okay. The most important thing is that everybody is so unique and you have to celebrate your uniqueness and your uniqueness changes every day and every second.

The first thing you do is you respect where you are. So I'm going to give you some ideas, but you have to discover your own. You have to listen to your own instincts. But I want to listen to your body. No, my body is going to tell your body something. Okay. You need to be alone in a room, try this, listen to the noise, but put other noise, music really loud.

Music that is not usually what you listen to so that you go somewhere else. Feel the vibration of the music. Use your imagination

to do weird things. Like one thing that works for me a lot is I start imagining that I'm breathing through my ears or you're sitting down, feel the vibration of the music on the floor. Let it touch you. Let it interact with the vibration of your body. And if you need to move, move. Run in place, but without anyone watching. And blindfold yourself so that you go inside. You don't have any outside stimulation so you find even...

Do you. You do you. That's your meditation. Claim your own place where you are and be excited about where you are and excited about where you've never been. And don't control it, which will be very hard for you, Kelly. But not if you're having fun. Not if you're having fun. At the end of the day is spending time with yourself and enjoying your own company. The most important thing is you being curious about you.

and not relying on someone else to show you the way. It's not your instincts anymore. It is so scary.

To try to think. To trust yourself. To try to think that you are capable of something that sounds like magic when you talk about it. Let it be a sensation that you acknowledge so that you are always in touch with your instincts. Because your instincts, it's a type of energy, I guess. I don't know because on top of it, I don't read much about it. I don't know much about it. I'm going to be making up my own assumptions of things that I'm

I did have somebody connect me to some machines. And apparently it took me 16 seconds to go into alpha. Wow. And what would it normally take? It takes the monks about 20. Wow. Wow. But the second time he tried to do it,

I was like in a pressure that I have to do that. You want to beat your personal record. You want to beat your time. Or can I get there? It's more than, I don't even want to beat this. I'm not even that competitive to be honest. I'm just insecure. Oh my God. Can I go there again? Is it gone? What are they expecting from me? I'm like, no.

And I didn't. But being able to tap into that energy has to help with acting, transforming yourself, getting yourself to places that maybe would be uncomfortable or working with difficult people. I don't know if you've had like experiences where you've worked with difficult directors or difficult actors, but I would think that being able to

disconnect from everything would be extraordinarily helpful. And I can also disconnect and stay present and watch without reacting. I can be meditating with my eyes open and listening. No kidding. Oh my God, am I going to get into trouble for doing this? Is this...

I don't want a lot of people. I only want, I'm disclaimer, only Kelly Ripa can ask me these questions. I don't want you listening to this and you're going to interview me. You can skip it, honey.

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Like I said, the only reason I ask is because it's a common theme here on this show that we cannot meditate. Kelly, one of the reasons you asked, it's because your instinct knew that your way into it, it's moving. And you asked me a very strange question. What would it look like? Would you be moving?

You know, if you start dancing by yourself in your bathroom, nobody's watching. It's a form of meditation. You can feel the joy in your body. That's what Mark said. Mark told me, he said, you don't realize you're meditating every day. Every time you go into a dance room and you put on that loud music and you start sweating and you start moving your body, he said, that is a form of meditation. You go on dance.

Jan is a great runner. She runs. And that is her form of meditation. She's doing it while she runs. Yes. But Albert says that that's not meditation. Yeah, but Albert was making us believe that it wasn't meditation. I wasn't making you feel bad. Because Albert needs to stay still. And for him, it's not meditation. It's not for him, but for you. That's what it is. It's different for every person. Celebrate your uniqueness. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Can you tell me, because I just, I want to know about your role in Black Mirror season six. I'm very excited about this. You're going to love it. I can't wait. You're going to love that episode. I love it. First of all, I love everything you do. So obviously I'm going to love it, but I want to know, like, what can you tell me? I can tell you that I'm,

I'm super excited that I got to be on the one episode of Black Mirror that is super funny. We watched it with an audience. Do they always do that? Do they always have an audience? No, no. It was some special thing. And I don't think I've ever done anything that had that kind of reaction in a room. I was kind of sad that people are going to watch them by themselves in their house. They have to like invite some friends because...

I was surprised that they were really into it, screaming, laughing. We had a standing ovation. We kind of got teary-eyed. It's like, you know, normally a horror, it's normally like a horror kind of a show, which I am afraid of fear. I don't want fear. I don't want to feel that. I like that you're afraid of fear. I am afraid of fear. And I watch television before I go to sleep, which I know it's terrible. And I don't want to have the nightmare, so...

I had watched a couple of their shows and I could admire how clever, how interesting. That's not the show I want to watch before I go to sleep, except this one. Yeah, this one, I read it and it's like, oh, it's not what I expected. And I was glad because when you think that a show that it's horror sends you a script that the creator, Charlie, wrote for you where you play yourself,

You think, what? Am I a horror show myself? Am I horrific? And it's called, by the way, Joan is Awful. And they say, oh, no, you play yourself. It was terrifying. But then I read it and loved it.

But is it hard to play yourself or do you play a demented version of yourself? It was delicious because you will understand this better than a lot of actresses. How much do we love making fun of ourselves, Yona? A lot. What a great sport that is. Yes, it is the greatest sport on earth. If it was Olympic, we'd be gold medalists. Yeah, I love that. And I also get to play like versions of me that are what some people most think I am.

And then I realized also that there were versions of me there that I don't dare to be that mean or something.

And that I really enjoyed being me. It was so freeing. It was so freeing. I didn't have to be nicey-nicey. It's exhausting sometimes to be nicey-nicey. Not that you want to be me, but sometimes you just don't want to be nicey-nicey all the time. Leave me alone. And I'm tired. You know, I'm cranky today. It's a lot of effort, the nicey-nicey. Yeah.

Yeah, of course. It was so liberating. My God, I love her. I want to ask you, I want to pivot again. You go, girl. I read in these notes that your first celebrity crush was Scott Baio. Is that true? Yeah.

I'm old and I'm from Mexico. We didn't get a lot. My little town, we didn't get a lot of choices for crushes. By the way, we're all in this same age bracket. We all had the same crush on Scott Bale. Yeah. He was so hot. Did you ever meet him? Did you ever meet him? Yeah. Yes. That's a good question. Yes, I did. When? Where? Was it Hawaii? Hawaii.

No, when I was in LA and I think somebody went up to him and told him, I can't think of who. So it might be me trying to protect myself from that memory of walking up to him. He used to be my crush. But it's kind of strange to have a crush on people and actually...

meet them. And was he nice when you met him? Was he nice? Oh, yeah. By that time, he was very excited. I had a crush on him. He had a crush on you now. Maybe when I had a crush on him, he would have run away from the Mexican. But by the time I met him, he seemed genuinely excited. Yeah. And I also had a crush on Stevie Wonder because I just think he's such a genius. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he's the best. Who doesn't love Stevie Wonder?

And did you meet him? Yeah, I did. And what's he like? We actually became really good friends. We have a wicked sense of humor together. Oh, yeah. But the first time I met him, I was in a restaurant. He walked in and I got up to say, Mr. Wonder, I am such a big fan. And as I was walking, the person with him said, Salma Hayek from Desperado is walking towards us.

And he stretched his hand. And then the guy panicked and said, she's short, she's short, she's short. Because of course, they went straight to my boobs. Because I am short and he's tall. They went straight to my boobs. I did say, Mr. Wonder, I'm not short. I'm kneeling. I'm such a big fan. And weren't you, you were really good friends with Prince, right? Yes.

And so, you know, I got to tell you, I had every poster of Prince hanging up in my bedroom growing up. I had every album. I bought the cover of Rolling Stone. I snuck away from home, took the train into Philadelphia, went to see Prince in concert at the Philadelphia Spectrum, bought tickets from a scalper, sat in the last row of

of the Philadelphia spectrum. He was so far away. It was incredible. Years go by. I told my husband this story a million times and we were out in the Hamptons. He says, "I have a surprise for you." And I said, "What?" And he said, "I have tickets to see one of your favorite performers tonight."

And I said, what are you talking about? And he got tickets to see Prince. What's that school, that fancy school in the Hamptons called? Oh, the Ross School? The Ross School, yeah. So they have this school, and in the summer they put on concerts there. But it's very intimate space. It's like almost in a yard of a school.

And Mark bought these fancy tickets and I went from being in the last row at the Philadelphia Spectrum to the front row. And I just sitting there sobbing, staring at Prince. And it was like, I couldn't believe how moved I was. Did you ever meet him?

I met him once very briefly, but it was a very weird day how we met. Oh, every day was weird in Prince Universe. I wasn't hosting the talk show yet, so I was still acting on the soap opera. He was a guest on The View, and there was a bomb threat at The View. And we shot in the same building, and they evacuated all of us

and there was Prince, and they were pulling his limo

up the driveway so he could get into his limo to leave. The bomb threat. They thought the building was going to blow up, but naturally they left the soap stars exactly where we were, just standing on the garage. And I just said, I'm such a fan. And he shook my hand and he was lovely and got into his car and drove away. And that was it. Like, that's my only interaction with Prince. But Mark has met him and said he's great. Let me ask you this. When you were listening to

that you were so moved because I think he had a special magical thing. Of course, the singing is great. The dancing is great. He's amazing. But his guitar playing, oh, used to give me the chills. Something about him with that guitar. Yeah, really.

really i still i still refer to him like he's still alive i'm always saying he is the greatest performer he's let's just do that i like that i know i know did he write a song about your daughter is that true yeah yeah yeah yeah no kidding yeah yeah you can listen to it it's called hey valentina but the funny thing is that i loved his music but i was not

You weren't a fan like that. I was a fan, but not like that. No. Yeah. How did you get to be friends? It was bumpy road. We did the premiere of Frida in America in the Toronto Film Festival. And they say to us, out of the blue, Prince just walked in. Prince is sitting in the audience. And everybody was like, oh my God, Prince, Prince, Prince, you know, he's sitting in the audience.

And who invited him? No one. He invited himself. He just showed up. And in the middle of it, he walked out. Prince just walked out! Prince just walked out!

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Staying hydrated is so important. It helps me with my energy, my sleep, my skin, and my mood. Keep yourself hydrated and refreshed the way I do with Fiji water. Did you know that Fiji water really is from the islands of Fiji? It's true. Unlike some other top premium bottled waters,

Fiji water's electrolytes are 100% naturally occurring. Visit your local retailer to pick up some today for your next backyard party, beach or pool day, hike or even your home office. It's not just water. It's Fiji water. Out of the blue, Prince just walked in. Prince is sitting in the audience. And everybody was like, oh, Prince, Prince, Prince, you know, he's sitting in the audience.

And who invited him? No one. He invited himself. He just showed up. And in the middle of it, he walked out. Prince just walked out. Prince just walked out. In the middle of Frida. And a little bit later, I don't know where I was. Maybe it was New York. I was with some friends. And this man comes to me in some club and says, excuse me, Ms. Hayek.

Mr. Prince is here and would like to have a word with you. And I said, here where? Well, he's in a private room over there. Would you please come? And I said, no, I'm not going to be summoned. He wants to have a word with me. He can come and have the word.

And my friends are like, yes, yes. I would have walked. I would have walked you right upstairs. I'd be like, no, we are going. And, uh, and he went and he came back and he said, he would just like to have like a private conversation with you. Would you be so kind to go over there? And I go, uh, no, he wants to talk to me. We can meet in the middle. Uh,

We can stand over there. Yeah. It was kind of hard for him. I said, what? Can he not walk? But I said, you go tell him he wants to talk to me. We can have a private conversation. We don't have to sit with my friends, but I'm not going to go over there. I'm not going to be someone like that. And so, yes, he came. And we're like against the wall with bodyguards like this.

And it did not go smooth. What happened? He said, I went to see your movie Frida. Can I say bad words? Of course. Yeah. You have to be careful here. I love him so much. He was so special about privacy. I said, you walked out. You hated it. He goes, no, but...

He started giving me like preaching me about morality and there's something in the movie that bothered him and I shouldn't be doing that because I'm special. And I said, what? This from the guy who wrote you sexy motherfucker? Is this a joke? And he's like, I don't don't say that. Don't say bad words, which, by the way, later on, he washed my mouth like four times.

He watched your mouth? Later on in the friendship. And it was funny. We were like, you know, we would just play because you know me and I know you. Yeah. We're...

very expressive with our words. - We're free with our language. - Yes. And so he says, "I don't do that anymore." - I'm glad I never got to say more than, "Hi, I'm a fan to Prince." - He would have loved you. - Could you imagine? - He would have loved you. He would have complained about you like he complained about me, but he would have loved you. - He would have made me gargle with Dawn dish soap. - I'm sure, I'm sure. Drano, Drano, he would have loved you. - Drano, 100%. Yeah.

But you know what? He loved authenticity and he would have absolutely loved you.

And so we had a fight. Oh, my gosh. And I'm not going to tell you all the things I told him, but I was feisty and I was like. You didn't back down. You held your ground. Oh, no, no, no. Anyway, we said our goodbyes. And then he started sending some things to try to change my mind and the new albums and this and that, because he's not like that. He's different. And I said, you know, I like the other music better.

We started texting and I made him laugh. I made him angry. He was not used to that, but I made him laugh. I never lied to him. I was brutal. He would get angry, but he would call again. Well, think about it. When you get to a certain point in your life,

And I'm sure you have found this in your own life. You have to surround yourself with people who will be honest with you. But I think it's particularly hard in the music industry

Yes. To find people that are not yes people, to find people that will be honest with you. And I think that's what he was drawn to is there is no artifice with you. You're not a phony. You're not a fake person. And I'm sure he loved being challenged. I'm sure it was the first time ever he summoned a woman who did not come running up the stairs. I know I would have knocked you out of the way to run up.

the stairs. I would have run right over you to get up. I would have carried you up the stairs. It was the perfect match for our friendship because I was honest with him, but never judgmental. And I did it with a sense of humor. And it turned out he had a fantastic, ironic sense of humor. So the banter was so loving that

And it was not hurtful. He was also sensitive. He had fun having discussions. And also, he had very specific spiritual beliefs by then. And...

I would listen to them and we would have very interesting conversations about that. And I would not agree with the beliefs, but I was curious and they were, it just led to interesting questions. And I would sit with him and read the Bible. And then I would question him. He thought he had all the answers. And when he got stuck, he would call his friends and then I, he would enjoy me challenging them and then not having the answers. And yeah, yeah.

My God, what a great loss. Somebody that can stimulate your brain constantly and make you curious about life and with

Interesting conversations, music, laughter, and support because nobody ever believed in me as much as he did. We used to sing for hours. He used to go on and on to the point where I said, can you please shut up and leave? In these nights, sometimes I would sing and he wanted to produce an album for me.

And I said, there's only one problem, my friend. Huge stage fright. Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. And he tried to train me to get rid of the stage fright. And one time he flew in the band, got me on the stage with no audience. And he said, you're not coming down till you sing.

And I couldn't. I would get out of the stage and sing. He would sit with me. I would sing a little bit. And then I would get on the stage and the sound wouldn't even come out. And then eventually I threw up from the pressure. I said, no, we stop. And then he decided I was, this is when nobody would hire me as an actress. I'm struggling. And then he decided I was a director.

And he wanted me to direct him in a movie. And I said, I can't direct you in a movie because you believe in me as a director, but I do not believe in you as an actor. And he was very offended. And I said, no, baby, listen to me. You...

are always Prince. Exactly. Unless you want to play Prince, let's do a movie with a character that is Prince. Purple Rain Part 2. Yeah, I ended up directing a video for him. My God, we had so much fun. Yeah, I can only imagine. Do you know, Kelly, that people ask me about Prince and I go, I don't talk about that.

A lot of times, or just briefly, or we tell them before. If they ask me for the documentaries, for the books, I'm like, no. It means a lot to me. Because, you know, here's the thing. I just...

I knew that you had this friendship because I remember Anderson Cooper told me that he went to a dinner at your house and he sat, talked to Prince at your house. Yeah, he was carrying Valentin. Yes. And it stuck with him. And I remember saying to him, tell me everything. Tell me what you ate. And he goes, what I ate? What I ate? I don't remember what I ate. I was with Salma Hayek and Prince. You think I remember what I ate? He was so dear to me.

Yeah. You can get anything out of me. You are an Oprah. There's like two of my jobs. Yes. Oh, my God. I'm the Oprah of the podcast world. That's how I like to- She's going to sleep the next time she's on a plane, Kelly. I will. Next time you're on the plane, I promise not to tuck you in anymore.

She was so sweet. I'm sorry. She's a sweet lady. You know what? You're right, though. She was probably trying to tuck you in so she could take that selfie. She really meant well. It's just for me, I was so tired. I get it. I was scared. Salma, thank you for doing the podcast. We look forward to seeing you in Black Mirror. I can't wait. Please watch it. I will. And I'm going to say something. I'm just going to say it.

Look for Salma Hayek in an upcoming season of The White Lotus. Put it in the universe. Oh, God. I'm just saying it. How much are we going to laugh if it happens? It's going to happen. And I'm going to say I want Mike White to star in that season of White Lotus starring Salma Hayek. Oh, yes. Let's send him the podcast. He'd love to hear it. I'm going to send it. I'm sending him the podcast.

Selma, thank you so much. Thank you so much. My love to the family, okay? Same, same, same to you. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Wow.

What did you think about that? Wow. That was amazing. She's amazing. I think we need to try to meditate again, Kelly. We are meditating. Oh, we are. By doing what? That's what she said. Yes, that's true. We're doing, you're wrong and we're right. She said she is alone in a room when she's doing it. You're wrong. We're right. She's alone in a room when she's doing it. I'm practically alone. No, you're not alone. I'm all alone.

I'm almost alone. We're going to go listen to that Prince song that he wrote for her daughter. Oh, it's all about her. But no, it's about her. I just pulled up the lyrics. All the lyrics are, tell your mama she should give me a call when she gets tired of running. Before you came on the scene, your mama was a movie queen. She was one of the best. All the lyrics are about her. It sounds like they had a beautiful friendship. Yeah, it does. It does. And it's so funny because I'll never forget that limo pulling up to rescue Prince and the rest of us standing there going,

So if this building blows up, at least Prince is not here. Well, everyone, goodbye. Don't forget to tell your friends to download, follow, and listen to Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa. Can't wait to talk with you all next week again. Bye. Bye.

Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa is a co-production of Melojo Productions and PRX Productions with help from Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is Follow Me from APM Music. From Melojo, our team is Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Albert Bianchini, Jan Chalet, Devin Schneider, Michael Halpern, Jacob Small, Roz Therrien, Seth Gronquist, and Julia Desch.

From PRX Productions, our team is Cara Shillen, Genevieve Sponsler, Megan Nadolsky, Edwin Ochoa. Additional sound design by Terrence Bernardo. The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzalez. This show is powered by Stitcher. What kind of day is it? It's a White Claw Day.

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