Salma Hayek has admitted that she was worried about playing herself in the new season of Black Mirror.
The actress appears in the sixth season of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series, starring in an episode titled ‘Joan Is Awful’.
In the episode, a woman named Joan (Annie Murphy) learns that her life has been turned into a TV show on a Netflix-style streaming service, with Salma Hayek playing her.
Speaking to Radio Times about her role, Hayek said that Black Mirror had gifted her “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play an interpretation of myself”.
“I got to explore the concepts and clichés people have about me and be self-deprecating,” she said.
“It’s as if I created an alter ego where I could do the most disgusting, grotesque things that you would never do in real life… and have permission to do that.”
Hayek added: “There are so many moments that shocked me in the script. There is one huge one that I had to come to terms with, and made me ask myself, ‘Do I really want to do this? Am I going to get in trouble?’’”
‘Joan Is Awful’ co-stars Michael Cera, Ben Barnes and Rob Delaney. Also appearing in the new season are Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Monica Dolan, Rory Culkin, Samuel Blenkin and Zazie Beetz.
The sixth season, which arrived on Netflix on June 15, has generally been well-received by critics, with many describing the new episodes as “thrilling” and “scathing and sadistic as ever”. Some, however, have labelled the season “hit-and-miss”.
In a three-star review, The Independent suggested that the “sci-fi mishmash needs to stop messing with a winning formula”, though said it “also brings something new”.
The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, said that it’s a “radical change of pace from Black Mirror as we’ve come to know it”, but added that it’s “the freshest this series has felt since at least 2017”.
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