Salma Hayek was "shocked" to get a starring role in 'Hitman's Wife Bodyguard'.

The 54-year-old actress reprises her role as Sonia Kincaid in the action comedy sequel but is a more central figure in the new flick and was pleased that director Patrick Hughes responded to audience feedback.

Recalling the moment she was approached for the project, Salma said: "Quite frankly, I was shocked. I've been in so many movies where we get the call: 'Oh my God, you're one of the most liked characters in the film.' So many times.

"But for the first time, there was a director that said, 'I'm gonna listen to the audience.' But I didn't trust him. At the beginning, I said, 'Oh, he's just exaggerating. He's just being nice.'"

The 'Frida' star continued: "But then when we started talking about it, he told me the storyline, and then I realised, 'Oh, my God, this guy is not for real, but he also wants me involved in the process.'"

Salma revealed that she was keen to highlight that her character is going through the menopause during the film.

She explained: "Then I said, 'Let's make it really interesting and talk about menopause in a funny way.' Imagine if you have a character that's already crazy and then add these hormones."

Salma is also set to appear alongside Lady GaGa and Adam Driver in the upcoming movie 'House of Gucci' and described it as the ideal project to return to acting with after a near-fatal brush with COVID-19.

She told Variety: "It was not a lot of time. It was easy. It was the perfect job just to get back into it. I had started doing Zooms at one point, but I could only do so many because I would get so tired."