Salma Hayek Bonds With Her Daughter Over Her Latest Film

Salma Hayek is making her latest project all about family. Hayek brought her daughter Valentina Paloma to the Los Angeles premiere of the animated film Hayek produced called The Prophet. The film was ...
Salma Hayek Bonds With Her Daughter Over Her Latest Film
Written by Mike Tuttle
  • Salma Hayek is making her latest project all about family. Hayek brought her daughter Valentina Paloma to the Los Angeles premiere of the animated film Hayek produced called The Prophet.

    The film was based on the Khalil Gibran classic of the same name, which is usually a heavy read for kids, despite being quite a short book. Salma Hayek’s daughter is only 7½, but she voices a character in the French version of the film herself.

    But having her daughter along at something as flashy as a premiere is unusual for Hayek.

    “I never do it,” Salma Heyek explained. “But it’s a special occasion. She suffered through Mommy not being around for so long with this one. She’s been a part of it because she had to sacrifice also for this film.”

    “It’s actually a grandmother-mother-daughter date night,” Hayek said. “My mom is also here. This film is for everybody.”

    Although Valentina has obviously seen the film, she had more reasons to attend the premiere.

    “She’s excited to see [the movie] again and show it to her friends, but she’s also excited because we have a lot of people from the Disney Channel here,” said Salma Hayek.

    The Prophet was written and directed by Roger Allers, the maker of the Disney production The Lion King. It is based on the book of the same name by celebrated Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran.

    Back when Hayek was working on the film, she explained that she was drawn to the project for family reasons.

    “Through this book I got to know my grandfather. Through this book I got to have my grandfather teaching me about life. So it is a very personal movie for me,” Salma Hayek said. “It encourages the new generation to go somewhere else to break out of the box.”

    “I think the whole world could use a little bit of message of peace, and more than a message of peace, to watch something that’s uplifting for the spirit and joyous, and that you can share with your family, ” Salma Hayek said

    While the book is a simple narrative about the teachings of a prophet about to leave to return to his homeland after many years, the animated film tells the story of Almitra, a young girl, and Mustafa, a poet imprisoned for his ideas. Salma Hayek does the voice of the girl’s mother, Kamila.

    Salma Hayek noted that Gibran, “is an Arabic writer who wrote philosophy and poetry and who brought all religions and the world together.”

    “It’s hard for a kid to understand (the Prophet) as it’s written, that’s why we made the movie. [My daughter] understands it in the film, because she sees the images of the words,” Salma Hayek said.

    “This has been the most amazing trip. I was not prepared for how emotional it was going to be for my family to be here,” she said.

    Now that the film is done and Valentina is joining her mother at the premiere, Hayek enthused, “For her, after seeing this movie, she doesn’t see death in the same way. She did a drawing of my grandmother’s tomb. She never met my grandmother. She was sad she was dead. Now after seeing the movie, in the drawing, my grandmother was released from the ground and she’s a spirit among us. That’s pretty awesome.”

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