Current:Home > NewsSalma Hayek reimagines 'Like Water for Chocolate' in new 'complex,' 'sensual' HBO series -Thrive Capital Insights
Salma Hayek reimagines 'Like Water for Chocolate' in new 'complex,' 'sensual' HBO series
View
Date:2025-04-12 21:42:42
Salma Hayek Pinault's new series adaptation of the best-selling 1989 novel "Like Water for Chocolate" comes with a cheeky disclaimer from the actor and producer: "It makes you want to eat and it makes you want to make love."
Based on the magical realism "literary jewel" by Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel (also adapted into a 1992 film), "Like Water for Chocolate" (Sundays, 8 EST/PST on HBO Latino and streaming on Max) is getting the Hayek Pinault treatment with a fresh and sensual reimagining spanning six episodes as viewers go on a journey of forbidden love with Tita (Azul Guaita) and Pedro (Andrés Baida).
Set in 1900s Mexico, the Spanish-language series begins with Tita, the youngest De La Garza daughter, born in a flood of tears after her Mamá Elena's (Irene Azuela) water breaks in the middle of the kitchen of Las Palomas Ranch as she's chopping onions and grieving the death of their patriarch.
Tita's emotional birth is symbolic of the grief, in family and love, that she'll experience throughout her life.
The series then fast forwards through the heightened love and lust between Pedro and Tita, and the plans she dreams up of a life with him before Mamá Elena reveals to her that as the youngest daughter, she must stay by her side until the day she dies.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
"It's about women trying to take their destinies by their hands and empower themselves," Hayek Pinault says. "It's about a complex relationship with tradition and the fear of disappointing our parents. It's funny, sensual, and beautiful and a great love story of forbidden love – for the most ridiculous reasons – but the weight it has at that time and place is intense."
Isabel Allende interview:'The House of the Spirits' author talks Barbie, her writing process and more
Why 'Like Water for Chocolate' film adaptation was 'special' for Salma Hayek
The 1992 adaptation was the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever released in the U.S. at the time, earning 10 Ariel Awards and a Golden Globe nomination.
The film found the "From Dusk Till Dawn" actress at a formative time in her life. "As I moved to the States in hopes of having an international career, this Mexican film does a crossover," Hayek Pinault says. "It was something special and it gave me so much courage to think that maybe I could do that, too."
As the 1992 film broke language barriers and brought a Spanish-language film to English-speaking audiences, Hayek Pinault hopes her remake also brings Esquivel's classic novel to "audiences around the globe to discover this masterpiece of literature. It's so rich, there's so much you can get out of it."
"Everybody who was involved with this show, in front and behind the camera, you felt that it was a labor of love. We were all excited to do this book and it was special to all of us in some way."
USA TODAY's The Essentials:US Poet Laureate Ada Limón on writing, surrendering to nature (and her pug snoring)
Salma Hayek's 'Like Water for Chocolate' was six years in the making
After 1995's "Desperado" launched Hayek Pinault into stardom, she launched her production company, Ventanarosa, in 1999. The company also produced "Frida," which made Hayek Pinault the first Mexican actress ever to be nominated for best actress in a leading role, and gave America Ferrera her breakthrough role in ABC's "Ugly Betty."
And still, it took six years for her to find a home for "Chocolate".
"I think they don't want to listen to me," she says jokingly of fellow Hollywood execs. "I succeed and I succeed and they see that, but a lot of women are going to identify with what I'm saying. You struggle, you get to a place, you prove yourself and you think, 'OK, now it's going to get easier. Nah.' They think it must have been a fluke, 'Can you do it again?' And I say, 'Yeah, I can. Watch me go.'"
'Have you done it all?':Hoda Kotb on wellness and the 'whispers' that led to 'Today' exit
Despite her unwavering conviction to bring Latino stories to the screen, "I do get exasperated when it has to be so hard. We know what our people want and we have to deal with people who don't understand our culture and don't know that this is what they want," Hayek Pinault says. "People want to feel a sense of pride in their culture and their roots. They think that the only thing that will succeed is if it's cliché, stereotypical and kind of silly − but there are different types of Latinos, and we have to serve all of them."
Food and love is the heart of 'Like Water for Chocolate'
The magic of "Like Water for Chocolate" comes into play when Tita gets down in the kitchen. Spending most of her time there, helping Nacha (Ángeles Cruz), the cook who essentially raised her, Tita learns to express herself through food, literally and figuratively.
"Tita is kind of a superhero in the kitchen," Hayek Pinault says. "She has this superpower that whatever emotion she (has she) puts into the food she cooks and whoever eats it is contaminated by her emotions."
After Mamá Elena forbids Tita from seeing Pedro and instead offers Tita's older sister Rosaura to marry him (he agrees, but only to be closer to his true love), Tita is tasked with baking their wedding cake. Her heartbreak and despair are infused into the recipe, and when wedding guests take a bite, rain clouds above them start pouring down and they all become visibly overwhelmed by sadness.
But it's also how Tita expresses her love – and lust – for the one she can't have.
Review:Netflix's 'The Diplomat' Season 2 is the political fantasy of the moment
Despite the period setting of "Like Water for Chocolate," Hayek Pinault believes it is a timeless, universal story.
"I'm proud of it and I just want everyone to watch it," she says. "I hope that the show inspires (viewers) to do everything with presence and joy, and to not forget to celebrate some of those wonderful lessons in life we take for granted, or to take things like food, family, the people that support us, for granted."
veryGood! (2424)
Related
- Louisiana high court temporarily removes Judge Eboni Johnson Rose from Baton Rouge bench amid probe
- World Series 2023: How to watch and what to look for in Diamondbacks vs Rangers
- Police arrest 27 suspected militants in nationwide crackdown as Indonesia gears up for 2024 election
- Daughter of divisive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin named head of political party linked to him
- NCAA hands former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh a 4-year show cause order for recruiting violations
- US expands its effort to cut off funding for Hamas
- Taylor Swift's '1989' rerelease is here! These are the two songs we love the most
- Texas man identified as pilot killed when a small plane crashed in eastern Wisconsin
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- US troops targeted again in Iraq after retribution airstrikes
Ranking
- Everything Simone Biles did at the Paris Olympics was amplified. She thrived in the spotlight
- Republican moves ahead with effort to expel George Santos from House
- Zillow, The Knot find more couples using wedding registries to ask for help buying a home
- West Virginia school system mandates religious training following revival assembly lawsuit
- Southern California rocked by series of earthquakes: Is a bigger one brewing?
- 2 bodies found in Vermont were missing Massachusetts men and were shot in the head, police say
- Chinese fighter pilot harasses U.S. B-52 over South China Sea, Pentagon says
- Acapulco residents are fending for themselves in absence of aid
Recommendation
Judge says Mexican ex-official tried to bribe inmates in a bid for new US drug trial
Proposed North Carolina law could help families protect land ownership
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo on Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo retiring: 'A deal's a deal'
Sophia Bush’s 2 New Tattoos Make a Bold Statement Amid Her New Chapter
Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
Chinese fighter pilot harasses U.S. B-52 over South China Sea, Pentagon says
Pope’s big meeting on women and the future of the church wraps up — with some final jabs
Taylor Swift is a billionaire: How Eras tour, concert film helped make her first billion