Mexico-born actress Salma Hayek is best known for her action roles in films like Desperado, as well as her Oscar-nominated turn as Frida Kahlo in the biopic Frida. But those aren't her favourite genres. "I love comedy," she says. "It's what I do best. I think it's a musicality, a matter of timing."

Salma Hayek with a questionable choice of fringe

Her latest film Beatriz at Dinner was a hit at Sundance in January, and opened Sundance London this month. It's a pointed black comedy that touches on some big issues that are especially resonant in the Trump age. In the film, Hayek strips away all of her usual glamour to play a holistic masseur who ends up at a dinner party with a group of aggressive businessmen. They represent everything she hates about humanity, so holding her tongue proves rather difficult.

"At some point, Miguel Arteta [the director] has the camera on my face for a long period of time," Hayek says. "I thought people might find it boring: I had no makeup and it was badly lit on purpose. But I felt liberated to look ugly. Imagine the freedom! You don't have to spend time in hair and makeup. If you didn't sleep the night before, you don't have to mask it. It was so lovely. Sometimes with age, you get better characters. I love to play the mother, and I'll be excited to play the grandmother. How boring to play that sexy part for the rest of my life. I think I'd shoot myself!"

At 50, Hayek of course still looks very glamorous. But she has refused to tamper with her looks. "I don't believe in Botox, because your face doesn't move," she says flatly. "I don't look at things short term; I think of longevity. Listen, if there was something you could do that would keep you looking good, I would do it. But I'm in love with my husband, and I want to look like a lovely lady when I'm 70. I want him to see me and think, 'Okay, my girl is old now, but there's still beauty there.'"

Married to French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, it's clear that Hayek doesn't actually need to keep working. But she loves her job as both an actor and producer. "It's fun," she says. "And I don't have the pressure I had when I was younger. A lot of the time I choose the movies I do by convenience. The most important thing in my life is my family, easily. I've never been away from my daughter for more than two weeks. So sometimes I do a movie because I like the people." 

Watch the trailer for Beatriz At Dinner: