Touted by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez as the first Mexican star to play the female lead in an American movie since Dolores Del Rio, the stunningly beautiful and charismatic Salma Hayek scorched stateside cineplexes as the fiery border town bookseller who romances Antonio Banderas’ vengeful “mariachi” in “Desperado” (1995). She had previously won the hearts of her countrymen with two TV roles in the late 1980s, first as an innocent schoolgirl in “Nuevo Amancer” and subsequently as the comely bad girl protagonist of “Teresa” in the extremely popular primetime soap. Fearing that Mexican audiences valued her looks more than her thespian skills–despite several acting awards–Hayek left Mexico at the height of her vogue and headed for L.A. She then took a year-and-a-half off from acting to learn English.
