7 little-known facts about Marvel’s Eternals star Salma Hayek: she got tapped as an Olympic gymnast and her first role was a Disney princess in a play

Salma Hayek is a household name worldwide, and is in the spotlight again for her role as Ajak in Marvel’s Eternals. But here are some facts that even fans might not know about her … View this post on Instagram A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) She wanted to be a gymnast Becoming a gymnast was Hayek’s childhood dream. “I fell in love with the sport, but there were no classes, nobody else was doing it, and I was teaching myself,” Hayek said during a 2017 appearance on Live With Kelly and Ryan. The actress said that at nine years old, she “begged” her dad to take her to a gym in Mexico City for the summer. “I was there two months and I was so focused and so good,” she said. “At that age, I got drafted for the Olympic team. However, that would mean that I would have to be in a boarding school, six hours a day of gymnastics … And I would have to be away from my family because it’s in Mexico City, and my father said no.” “My Olympic dream died there,” Hayek added. Which celebrities renounced their Chinese citizenships? She was expelled from school Hayek was expelled from a Catholic boarding school in New Orleans at 12 years old because of the pranks she pulled. “I was ingenious,” Hayek told Town & Country in 2019. “I always had a sense of humour, but there was a naivety in the naughtiness.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) In a 2014 interview with The Wrap, the Eternals star elaborated on some of the pranks she’d play on the other students. Hayek said that her classmates would wake up early in the morning to put make-up on and curl their hair, meanwhile she “wanted to sleep until the last minute”. One day, Hayek decided to set the clocks back an hour earlier to mess with the other students. “I laughed for about two hours,” she said, adding that she got detention and “got creative” there too. Her first celeb crush might surprise you Chachi Arcola from Happy Days, played by Scott Baio, was her first celebrity crush. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SCOTT BAIO (@realscottbaio) The American sitcom ran for 11 seasons from 1974 to 1984. Hayek revealed the fun fact during an interview with the Associated Press. She didn’t like her first acting role Hayek’s first-ever audition was for the role of Jasmine in a children’s play of Aladdin in her home country of Mexico. “I was 18. I had to sing and I had stage fright,” she told W magazine of playing the Disney princess. “It was a horrible experience – I got the job, but the work was a nightmare. I really suffered every day.” Melania Trump’s best on-screen appearances in film, TV and ads Designers wouldn’t dress or style her She wore temporary tattoos at the 1998 MTV Music Video Awards because designers wouldn’t loan her jewellery at the time. In an interview with Vogue India, Hayek opened up about her difficulty with finding designers to dress her or give her jewellery to wear for public appearances early in her career. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) “I had on a very simple black dress and I knew all the other girls were going to have fabulous dresses, beautiful jewellery,” she said. “And can I tell you something? Instead of giving me a complex and saying that I don’t have the best dress or they don’t know who I am, I was like, ‘I am fabulous.’ I painted some butterfly tattoos on myself and I felt happy about myself.” “Creativity is everything,” she told InStyle in 2021. She has an interesting pet She got a pet rescue owl for her husband, Francois-Henri Pinault, and named it after his luxury goods brand, Kering. Hayek told People that she saw an ad and got the owl as a Valentine’s Day gift for Pinault. In addition to Kering, the actress has several pets, including dogs, horses, alpacas, bunnies and chickens. Hayek has an animal sanctuary and most of her pets are rescues, some of which she found homeless on the streets. “I love animals, all kinds of animals,” she told Ellen DeGeneres in 2021. Jennifer Aniston vs Reese Witherspoon: who has the most lavish lifestyle? She’s good with numbers Her hidden talent is that she’s good at sudoku. “I breastfed for 14 months, and my God, that baby could not get enough all night. I didn’t sleep for like a year,” Hayek, who has a daughter named Valentina, told W magazine. “While she was breastfeeding, it was boring,” the actress said. “So I started doing sudoku, and I think I’m really good. I can do it sometimes in four minutes.” This article originally appeared on Insider Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.