Salma Hayek was attacked by a monkey

11 January 2020

Salma Hayek was viciously attacked by a monkey when she filmed 'Frida'.

Salma Hayek

The 53-year-old actress was left "severely injured" when a spider monkey named Tyson lunged for her while she was shooting the movie - in which she played famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who had two of the primates as pets - in 2002.

Discussing a photo shoot she did at the time, Salma - who posed with the monkey for the magazine - explained to Vogue: "This next one is 2002 when I did 'Frida' and this was in Vogue and I was very proud to be part of Vogue for the first time in my life. This monkey, who was named Tyson, actually attacked me during the filming of Frida and I was really severely injured.

"But I was brave enough to let him come back and work again in the movie and then I still did a photo shoot with him for Vogue afterward.

"I was really hoping he wouldn't go for my face."

The 'From Dusk till Dawn' star later starred in the iconic magazine after she was hand-picked by the Duchess of Sussex to appear in her feature last year.

She said recently:"I couldn't talk about it and I didn't. I felt very honoured when we did this photo shoot. No one else knew what it was for. Only me and the photographer, Peter Lindbergh, knew. All the girls were getting their picture taken for the cover and they didn't know that Meghan was how they got there."

And when Vogue's editor Edward Enninful called her with the duchess - who was known as Meghan Markle before she married Prince Harry - Salma thought she was being pranked.

Recalling what happened, she said: "I was in the car and [Enninful] said, 'Listen, I'm going to put somebody on the phone. Are you in the car with people?' I said 'Yes.' He told me, 'You cannot say the name of the person I'm calling.' Frankly, I thought it was a joke. And we are also very good friends with Naomi Campbell. And I thought, they're pulling my leg or something, you know? But then it took a while for the other person to get on the phone. Then she got on the phone and introduced herself.

"She explained her passion for women and what's happening currently. And then she said she's doing this with British Vogue. [She said] 'I'm [doing the cover], I'm not going to be on the cover, I'm putting my favourite women on the cover. And you're definitely one of them. You are one of the first ones.'"