Salma on her lifesaving work (and brand-new baby)

Longtime pal Eve Ensler talks with the dedicated activist and new mom about her crusade against violence and her long-distance love.

The first time I met Salma Hayek was in 2002, when she performed my play The Vagina Monologues at a benefit for my antiviolence movement, V-Day, at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. She was utterly terrified, and I was worried that the stage fright would paralyze her. Of course, the minute she walked out onto the stage and began performing a monologue called “My Short Skirt,” she brought the house down. What I remember about that performance are her legs, which were sexy and strong, and her accented voice, which was deep and commanding. Her energy was red-hot. It occurred to me that night that everything about Salma Hayek was “V”: voluptuous, vivacious and victorious. She is a person who leaves Mexico at the height of one career to begin another in the United States; who takes a risk producing Ugly Betty only to have it become a breakthrough television phenomenon; who grows her eyebrows and actually becomes Frida Kahlo; who says that she loves to wake up to watch her roses grow early in the morning. Glamorous and rugged, cutting-edge and totally traditional, she’s a fiercely feminine feminist. And now she is a mother. The same intensity and imagination she has brought to her art and her life, she now brings to her daughter, Valentina.
In the six years since that night at the Apollo, Salma and I have forged a friendship out of our mutual commitment to making the world safe for women and girls. It’s a friendship that has taken us around the world; we have stood together, spoken out together, cried together and had each other’s backs. On the tenth anniversary of V-Day, I sat down with Salma in the kitchen of her Los Angeles home to talk about her new role as mom to Valentina (whom she breast-fed while we spoke), her long-distance relationship with her fiancé, François, and our shared dedication to eradicating violence against women.

EVE ENSLER: You’ve been such a huge part of this movement. How did you come to care so deeply about the issue of ending the abuse of women and girls?

SALMA HAYEK: When I was 18 I had a friend who was so cool. She was a straight-A student, sophisticated, studying architecture in college, someone I really looked up to. I was convinced she would become the president of Mexico. Then she fell in love, and this strong, knowledgeable girl became a victim of abuse. It shocked me to see how she got into the cycle and how it stole her soul away. That’s when I realized it could happen to anyone.

EE: Has it ever happened to you?

SH: Not personally. But the first time I saw domestic violence firsthand was when I was in Mexico, taking a walk with my family, and we came upon a man beating up this woman. My father intervened and fought the man and won. I remember thinking, Oh my God, my father is a hero. Then the woman turned around and started beating up my father. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. After that I became very intrigued with what makes a woman stay in an abusive relationship: How does her spirit break?