Making horror movies must be stressful at times. For all the fun and gore, you’re working to scare people, and that can start with the performers. Salma Hayek had a tough time making vampire movie From Dusk till Dawn because of one scene that needed her to get into a trance-like state.
She explained it to IGN in 2002. “Do you know what it was like to dance with that snake in a bikini? That’s probably the biggest challenge I have ever encountered,” she states, adding: “I went to the extent that I created a relationship with this snake. I mean in my mind it had to have a meaning so that I could go into a trance. I had to go to hypnosis. It was months of preparation for that one dance.”
To Hayek, the scene, in which her vampiric character provides an erotic performance, was more of a “ritual” than a dance. “I investigated snakes and I found that in some cultures it means your inner power,” she explains. “So that was a dance with my inner powers. I was not just dancing, it had a meaning to it. So that was really, really challenging.”
In the setpiece, Hayek plays Santanico Pandemonium, the headline act of Titty Twister, where all the carnage takes place. She gives protagonists the Gecko brothers, portrayed by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, some special attention, teeing up the onslaught that’s about to happen.
It’s one of many great scenes in one of the best monster movies committed to screen, Robert Rodriguez directed the sleazy thriller movie, wherein the aforementioned brothers kidnap and coerce a family into taking them to Mexico. Their journey is derail when a stop at a bar becomes a battle for their lives.
The back half of From Dusk Till Dawn is particularly intense, but it sounds like Hayek went through the wringer well before all the bloodshed kicked off. Have a look at our list of the best werewolf movies for more animalistic brutality.