Salma Hayek Didn’t Even Want Her Hardest Role Yet
Dig out Salma Hayek promoting her latest film, Without Blood. And in true Salma fashion, she comically yet seriously spills that playing Nina may be the hardest role of her career to date.
During her visit to TODAY, Hayek admits she originally did not want to make the film at all. The reason was simple: Nina’s emotional world is heavy, painful and relentless, and Hayek knew saying yes meant deliberately walking into that headspace every day for weeks. Angelina Jolie had other plans.
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Jolie wrote, directed and produced Without Blood, adapting Alessandro Baricco’s novel into an intimate war drama about trauma, memory, revenge and what happens when violence keeps living inside people long after the fighting stops. Hayek stars opposite Demián Bichir, with Juan Minujín also in the cast.
Hayek says Jolie had to convince her to step into Nina’s shoes. She knew the role would require suffering on command over and over again, and that was exactly what made her resist it. Once she committed, though, the film became deeply important to her — the kind of performance that asks for more than simply showing up and hitting your marks.
There is also something especially fitting about Jolie being the one to push her there. The two have an established friendship and previously worked together in Eternals, but here the relationship shifts: Jolie stays behind the camera while Hayek carries the emotional center of the story.
Without Blood first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024 and finally arrives in U.S. theaters on September 18, 2026. The film runs about 84 minutes and places its focus less on battlefield spectacle than on what war leaves behind in memory, grief and human connection.
The TODAY chat also catches Salma in a reflective mood beyond the movie. She opens up about turning 60 and becoming a grandmother, saying she is still growing up and still falling in love with life. Heavy movie, light touch — very Salma.
Salma Hayek Calls Without Blood Her Hardest Role on TODAY
Salma Hayek joins TODAY to discuss Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood, why she initially resisted playing Nina and why the emotionally demanding role became so important to her.
Source: TODAY; FilmNation Entertainment.
