Salma Hayek Never Saw Herself in ‘The Faculty,’ Says ‘I Hate Horror Films’
Salma Hayek has never seen the 1998 sci-fi/horror movie The Faculty in which she plays Nurse Harper. The Robert Rodriguez-directed film written by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson is about a high school overrun by alien invaders that kill the teachers and then impersonate them. The eclectic The Faculty cast includes Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Usher Raymond, Jon Stewart, and Elijah Wood.
In a “Role Recall” interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Hayek — who also stars in Rodriguez's vampire flick From Dusk till Dawn — is unapologetically dismissive of the horror genre. “Oh, I hate horror films, and I don’t watch them,” says Hayek. “It was tough for me to do [The Faculty] because of that. I don’t understand them very well. It’s a genre that I just don’t get into.”
Hayek has no memory of her character's death scene, in which Patrick's Coach Willis extends his alien tongue into her ear and presumably scrambles her brains. “I’ve never watched it, I don’t even remember it,” adds Hayek. “Somebody kills me, I know. I remember it was awful.”
Hayek recently appeared as herself — an actress outraged by a studio's use of her likeness via AI — in an episode of Black Mirror titled “Joan Is Awful.”
The Faculty Helped Reinforce Elijah Wood's Affinity for the Horror Genre
If The Faculty turned Hayek off to horror films, the movie had the opposite effect on costar Elijah Wood, who plays Casey Connor. “It was the first time I had ever been to Austin, totally fell in love with Austin, [and] moved there many, many, many years later,” says Wood in another “Role Recall” interview with Yahoo Entertainment. “I remember going out to dinner with people and my mom not necessarily going, so there was a sort of expression of independence for the first time. And in that city it felt really cool.”
About the movie itself, Wood adds, “That was a really formative experience. It was so fun getting a chance to work with Robert, who had a very different approach than any other director that I’d worked with. … Loved it.”
After playing Frodo in The Lord of the Rings movies, Wood played exceptionally creepy characters in movies such as Sin City, Maniac, and Come to Daddy. Wood also produced unusual genre films such as Cooties, The Greasy Strangler, Mandy, and Daniel Isn't Real.
The Faculty turns 25 this December.
Robert DeSalvo is a professional writer and editor with over 25 years of experience at print and online publications such as Movieline, Playboy, PCH, Fandango, and The A.V. Club. He currently lives in Los Angeles, the setting of his favorite movie, Blade Runner. Robert has interviewed dozens of actors, directors, authors, musicians, and other celebrities during his journalism career, including Brian De Palma, Nicolas Cage, Dustin Hoffman, John Waters, Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore, Bryan Cranston, Anne Rice, and many more. Horror movies, sci-fi, cult films as well as gothic, postpunk, and synthwave music are what Robert geeks over.
