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Lauren Hughes

Salma Hayek's incredible response to a reporter asking her an awkward question on the red carpet is legendary

Salma Hayek at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party .

Salma Hayek is a respected Hollywood actor with decades of experience and she's also known for her quick-fire wit - in interviews as well as in candid moments. 

A clip recently resurfaced of A-lister Salma Hayek giving a brilliant response to a reporter prying about the price of her outfit at the Time 100 Gala in April last year. 

Salma was shimmying down the red carpet looking incredible in a sparkling sequin blue and black dress when a reporter approached her and asked, "What's the most expensive thing that you're wearing?"

The actor pondered the question for a moment, before replying, cuttingly, "Probably my brain". She then quipped, "You try to sell that jewel, I don’t know."

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, a flurry of comments followed on social media, praising the "witty" and "intelligent" star. 

"I love this woman. So witty and intelligent and of course, oh so beautiful!" wrote one fan, while another said simply, "She’s an icon, a legend, she IS the moment."

Salma Hayek's response to this red carpet moment also prompted some discourse around why that particular question was even being asked in the first place.

One Instagram user wrote, "Do female reporters ever feel they are letting themselves down by perpetuating the stereotype of asking only dumb, superficial questions? In 2024 they still comfortable asking women to define themselves in terms of clothing, jewellery and their cost?"

(Image credit: Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Another then replied, "It’s kind of part of the job and the environment they’re in it’d be different if she was at a bar, restaurant, or attending a gala or something that doesn’t have to do with actors and actresses and models and fashion etc and she asked those superficial questions."

Salma herself has spoken before about how women in the industry can sometimes be "typecast" as "sexy" as women were "not allowed to be funny" in the '90s.

"I was typecast for a long time," she told GQ in an interview published in February 2024, before going on to say, "My entire life I wanted to do comedy and people wouldn’t give me comedies."

(Image credit: Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images)

The acclaimed actor continued, "I couldn’t land a role until I met Adam Sandler [referring to the 2010 comedy Grown Ups], who put me in a comedy, but I was in my forties! They said, ‘You’re sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humour’... Not only are you not allowed to be smart, but you were not allowed to be funny in the Nineties."

It's safe to say we now all definitely know Salma has a brilliant sense of humour!

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