Salma Hayek stuns in magazine swimsuit cover at 58
Salma Hayek's star is still on the rise as she made her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine debut at 58.
"I remember when I was young, a long, long time ago, I was always excited to see the Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, and [thinking] ‘Who’s going to be in it?’ Of course, I didn’t look like a model, so it never crossed my mind that one day I would be in it,” Salma told the outlet.
“If somebody had told me I was gonna be in it at 58, I would have sent them to the madhouse, but the world has changed, and that’s exciting," she added.
She's one of the cover girls in the spotlight for the 2025 issue, alongside Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles, model and gymnast Olivia Dunne, and entrepreneur Lauren Chan.
The Fools Rush In star expressed how she feels fortunate to be part of a generation that has been able to experience "very tangible change,”
“I could retire, but I don’t want to miss out on this time. I fought for it, you know, and I’ve been part of it, and I think it's really remarkable that a magazine like Sports Illustrated [Swimsuit] says that it’s O.K., maybe even cool, to be past 50 and still be able to feel not just sexy, but for me, to be free and not be self-conscious of your body like you have to hide," she continued.
In her interview with TODAY, Hayek admitted that she has a bad case of "impostor syndrome," saying she tried to back out on the day of the shoot.
"I said yes and then when it was time to do it, I tried to back out," Hayek recounted. "I said, 'No,' because the bathing suits never fit me, how am I gonna do this? There's nothing my size—I always suffer.'" To help her, she shared that the magazine sent her 200 swimsuits.
"I tried more than 100," she said. "A lot of them needed to be altered."
However, her suitcase, which stores the altered swimsuits and her essentials, got lost on the way to Mexico, where the photoshoot took place.
"They lost the suitcase, nothing was there!" she said, adding that what she wore instead were the few extras brought on set.
The Desperado star further shared how she wasn't feeling confident and "very nervous at the time. "I showed up feeling, 'What am I doing here?' "
Her doubts changed when a whale jumped behind her as soon as she walked in on the beach for the first shot.
"And all of a sudden I felt, 'This is magical. This is my land. I'm 58, I'm doing this. My generation, especially Mexican women, we thought we were going to be dismissed at 35. And I got so excited, I felt really free. I put on Bad Bunny, I started dancing, I loved it!" she shared.
Hayek is known for her roles in movies including Desperado, Magic Mike, Dogma, and Frida, where she made history as the first Mexican actress to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role award.
