"Hollywood is not going to change"- When Salma Hayek opened up about the gender gap in the industry

Salma Hayek may be one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the past few decades but this does not save her from the existing gender discrimination that remains prevalent in the industry. In fact, in an interview dating back to May 2018, the actress discussed in detail how the gender gap still exists and is extremely prevalent even in a time when we would not imagine it to be such a big issue.

Salma Hayek spoke to Kreol about a variety of things in Hollywood, especially pertaining to women and their representation. She ended up saying that she believed that Hollywood was not going to change for the better. She also spoke in detail about how women are less represented in the industry and how a lot of women have forgotten what they really want to watch.

When asked why Hayek thought this discrimination existed, she told Kreol:

"I think it’s ignorance. Overall, if I had to summarize this, it’s ignorance. They had not realized by now, we, women, are a great economic power and these people don’t understand that there’s a huge audience."

She continued:

"We’ve been neglected for so long, they don’t even know what we want to watch. By the way, we don’t even know what we want to watch because there’s not been a lot...I think it’s that Hollywood is not going to change, to treat women as equals."

Salma Hayek further expanded on her viewers about Hollywood and its complicated relationship with its women.

"Even the good guys are ignorant"- Salma Hayek on the existing lack of equality in Hollywood

When Barbie was released in 2023, it brought up the conversation about female-led and female-directed blockbuster movies, which are a rarity in Hollywood. Hayek believes that this rarity exists due to the ignorance of the industry of female viewers and the female economic power, which leads them to not capitalize on this by giving equal opportunities to men and women.

Salma Hayek expanded:

"It’s business, but even the good guys are ignorant in the way that they have not capitalized on the female audience potential.. They are undermining us as an economic force, when, today, almost 80% of the decision makers of what movie to watch is a female."

She further elaborated:

"Now, women, we are independent, we all work, we all make money. We want to go out and have fun much more than before, and we are the greatest consumers in not only film but for fun, for everything, and they have not capitalized on that. It’s ignorance."

Of course, this is an ongoing conversation that has come up often in the industry and among actors and creatives but as most know, a gap exists that still needs to be filled.

In this same interview, Hayek claimed that she may have felt a change in the way women existed in the industry over her long and illustrious career, but she believed that it was still far from ideal. She also said in this interview how in France things were much better for women, especially on the creative side where things were nearly equal for both genders.

Salma Hayek is soon set to appear in Romain Gavras' Sacrifice, which is currently under production. Stay tuned for more updates.

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