Salma Hayek Nude Scenes in “Ask the Dusk”

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Monday, March 20, 2006

Although I have never heard anyone complain about Salma Hayek getting naked, she is defending her full-frontal nude scene in her new movie, “Ask the Dust.” She recently told the New York Daily News,

“I don’t want to do nudity just for the sake of doing nudity,” says Hayek. “But this is an iconic part of the story [from] the book. It’s important because it represents [Camilla's] spirit, which is very free, and yet she lives in world where she’s very repressed by the circumstances. So [the nudity is] almost symbolic for who she is.”

It apparently took Hayek a while to warm to the character. Pamela Harland observes,

Ironically for someone who was so committed, passionate and willing to give her all to the project, it’s surprising to hear Hayek turned down the very same part nearly a decade ago. “What happened is that [Towne] gave me this script eight years ago,” explains Hayek, “and I did not understand the character and I thought she was an awful human being and racist [because] she wanted to be American. I just did not have the vision to see the subtleties of the character.”

What, she saw “Spanglish”?

NYDN film critic Jami Bernard contends that the problem with the film is not Hayek’s nudity but what happens when she’s dressed.

There’s a lot to be said – really there is – for Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell romping nude in the waves of “Ask the Dust.” If you’ve seen Hayek in her Oscar gown, or Farrell’s lusty, tender sex tape making the rounds on the Internet, you know what I’m saying. Playing outcast strivers in Depression-era L.A., Hayek and Farrell are among the top physical specimens you’d want to see bobbing in the metaphor-laden surf. (The waves knock them about just as life does.) It’s when they’re clothed that problems arise in this atmospheric but awkward drama adapted by its director, Robert Towne, from the novella by John Fante.

The story is nominally about a Mexican waitress and a struggling Italian writer who pair up in a love-hate relationship. Camilla (Hayek) wants to shed the stigma of her nationality through marriage and a name change. Arturo (Farrell) has published one story in a high-toned literary magazine, but he doesn’t have enough life experience, so his creative well is dry. L.A. is their lady, but she doesn’t know they exist.

Certainly, I’d rather see Hayek nude than sit through crap like that.

Wouldn’t you?

Salma Hayek Nude Scenes in “Ask the Dusk”

ADVERTISERS

OTB MEDIA

TOPICS

TAGS

LINKS

Blogroll

AFFILIATIONS