Salma Hayek On Women Over 40 Without Kids: ‘It’s Awful’

Some people aren’t taking too kindly to Salma Hayek’s recent comments on women in their 40s. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, we’re going to assume that Salma was referring to herself and not all women in their 40s, but maybe it just didn’t quite come across this way. In a recent interview with Associated Press (for which she’s promoting her new role in Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet), Salma said that to be in your 40s and without children is just ‘awful’.

Potentially adding insult to injury for those?women who are single and over 40, Salma also reminds us that this is when most men run a million miles. “The only thing that is tough about the 40s is when you haven’t had a child. This is awful. And the men today are terrible because when you are coming to the 40s they – start going away. But you know what? (Not) the good ones.?

In the same breath, however, Salma reassures women who approach the big 4-0 that this is when life really gets going:??You don’t look as bad as you thought you were going to look. You don’t feel as old as you thought you were going to feel. It’s a myth. Forties are full of life.”

Though the childless women?comments have been viewed by various outlets as a little on the judgy side of things, we know Salma is a keen, vocal supporter of women in Hollywood (and women, period) and the sexism they continually seem to face. Perhaps what Salma is referring to the judgement she she received for being over 40 without kids. It wasn’t until she was 41 that she had her first kid. Speaking with HuffPost Live, Hayek slammed the jaded attitudes in her line of work: ”They don’t like somebody who has an opinion on the script… They want a girl to come in and be quiet and look pretty and do as the say, and it’s just not in my nature … It’s hard. They go by stereotypes.”

And while Salma would just love to get her teeth into something meaty, her experience has often been that her role winds up more and more ‘dumbed down’, to further suit the stereotype. ”I’ve had movies where the director really wanted me, but the dude didn’t approve and I’ve got pipped out. In scripts, a lot of the time there is a part that’s good, that then starts dumbing down. If you get on set and start to make it better, they don’t like it.”

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