Salma Hayek suffers stage fright

Salma Hayek gets "really, really bad" stage fright.

The 50-year-old actress feels very uncomfortable performing in front of an audience, and if she has to do so, her fears are so debilitating, she is then too "exhausted" to do anything else.

She said: "I suffer from stage fright. No one would know it, but I get it really, really bad. If you take the camera away and put me in front of an audience, I just die.

"Once I get onto the stage, you can’t tell. But then I can’t do anything else the rest of the day because I’m so exhausted."

Salma wanted to become an actress after watching 1971 musical ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ as the film made her realise "anything is possible".

She explained to HOLA! USA magazine: I went to see ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ and it wasn’t that I said, ‘I want to be an actress’, but rather, ‘There is a world where anything is possible. There can be a chocolate river. There are no limitations.’ And that’s how I fell in love with film."

The ‘Frida’ star – who has nine-year-old daughter Valentina with husband François-Henri Pinault – credits becoming a mother with helping her grow as a person and learn a lot about herself.

She said: "Feeling responsible helps you develop as a human being…You learn a lot about yourself when you do something for someone else."

Salma’s own mother, Diana Jiménez Medina, always knew her daughter was destined for great things but admits she is still "surprised" by the actress.

She said: "I always knew that Salmita would be something big in her life because of her personality, her way of always working for what she wants, but she surprises me.

"She continues to surprise me more and more. There was one thing that I wanted: that was for Salma to be free to grow up and do whatever she wanted."