Salma Hayek Opens Up About Her Friendship With Angelina Jolie and Viral Bikini Pics (Exclusive)

Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie’s friendship has been delighting fans of the talented actresses for years — and for Hayek, their close bond has been “enriching” and growing ever deeper.

ET’s Nischelle Turner recently spoke with Hayek — who was at the Toronto International Film Festival for a screening of El Sabor de la Navidad, which Hayek produced — and she opened up about what she loves most about her friendship with Jolie.

“Everything,” Hayek gushed. “She’s been very very enriching in my life, in so many ways — as mothers, you know. Most of all, as artists.”

According to Hayek — who starred opposite Jolie in the 2021 Marvel film The Eternals — theirs is a friendship “that keeps growing.”

Apart from their work on The Eternals, Hayek also starred in a film directed by Jolie, Without Blood, which has not yet been released. That experience seemed to cement their bond of friendship, with Hayek telling Deadline last year that Jolie “is the best director I’ve ever worked with… I absolutely loved working with her; enjoyed every second of it.”

Hayek told ET that, as the years pass and they spend more and more time together, she and Jolie grow “closer and closer. And it’s just natural. It’s just something that flows.”

The celebrated actress also recently celebrated her 57th birthday, and commemorated the occasion with some stunning, head-turning beachside bikini snapshots.

When asked about her secret to what appears to be some sort of magical fountain of youth, Hayek said she thinks it all about “meditation.”

“I really believe it is. People say it’s exercising. I think it’s meditation,” she shared. “You have to find your way. For me, exercising is hard… It’s really, really difficult to have the discipline to do it. But meditation is a walk in the park, because it’s my own form of it.”

“You sit in a moment with yourself, that’s already meditation,” she added. “But do I do it every day.”

Hayek’s birthday celebration came just days ahead of El Sabor de la Navidad — or, in English, The Flavor of Christmas — premiering at TIFF.

Hayek came out to support the film, which she produced by does not star in, and reportedly got permission from SAG-AFTRA to attended the event amid the ongoing strike. The holiday-themed film follows three interwoven narratives that unfold in and around Mexico City, and tackle issues of acceptance and embracing love.

“What a better time than at Christmas time, and a Christmas, movie to talk about acceptance?” Hayek said of the project. “Christmas time it’s also a great opportunity for us to look at ourselves, build the courage to say ‘I love you’ to the people we have a hard time saying it to.” To reunite with family and celebrate the bonds that already exist with the loved ones, and also to celebrate the new possibilities of new bonds.”

El Sabor de la Navidad will be streaming on ViX in November.

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