Salma Hayek Reveals Pre-Fame Bouts With ‘Severe Depression’

Salma Hayek opens up in the May issue of Lucky magazine about battling depression while trying to make her big break into Hollywood acting. The gorgeous Mexican woman claims that she used to be an “ugly duckling,” a story hard to find believable now.

She said that her depression occurred, “When I was 25 and I left being a soap opera star in Mexico to go try to be a movie star in Hollywood and all of Mexico was laughing at me? And I could barely get work as an extra?”

Hayek told the magazine that:

“You want to talk about bad skin? I had acne…and this acne was so bad, it sent me into a severe, severe depression. Like I couldn’t leave the house.”

She went on to reveal that the depression she was in, along with her low self-esteem led her to eat. She confessed:

“The next stage with that sort of depression is food: too little, or too much…guess what I did? I mean, I was fat and broken out, I couldn’t leave the house and I couldn’t pay the rent!”

The actress was quick to note that it did not help that she loves food. She said, “”I’m always on the edge of how much can I eat without looking too – you know.”

It’s hard to even picture Salma Hayek as “you know” (I think she means fat). Especially considering the way the gorgeous actress looks now, at 45.

She credited most of her turnaround to director friend Alfonso Cuarón. She said that:

“He did not play it down, he did not try to say, ‘Oh, you look fine’…he said you can’t do this to yourself and taught me to meditate, relax. I got myself back together!”

From the way she looks now, it is easy to see that Salma Hayek toook Alfonso Cuarón’s advice.