Kelli Pate
Salma Hayek turned 53 on her birthday last Sunday—but you wouldn’t know it based on the gorgeous bikini photo she posted on Instagram to celebrate.
The Frida star shared the makeup-free shot the day before her birthday, proving that age really is nothing but a number.
“Yes, tomorrow I’m 53. So!?” Hayek, who started her long career in Mexico, captioned the pic in both English and Spanish.
The Oscar-winning actress has a long history of speaking candidly about body image. In an interview with Hello! in 2012, she opened up about her love of food and accepting her curves.
“I am on the limit of chubbiness because I love my food and my wine,” Hayek told the magazine. “It’s not the best for fashion, but it’s good for my mood. I am happy because I eat. The truth is I just don’t have the drive to be the prettiest and the thinnest.”
Hayek also talked frankly about approaching her 50th birthday in a 2016 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“Well I am entering my fifties, so your body confidence isn’t that good,” she said. “I think it depends on the day, for everybody, there’s some days you say, ‘This is it,’ and you love it. Then there are days when you go, ‘This cannot be it! Is this really it?’ So I think it’s up and down all the time!”
Hayek’s honesty and body positivity is so refreshing—especially considering the intense pressure women in Hollywood are under to stay thin. She talked about the struggle to find roles in a 2017 interview with Net-a-Porter’s The Edit.
“If you think about it, I’m limited by the way I talk and by the way I look. I’m 48 years old,” she said. “Amazing, talented people [stop finding work] at 32, 33 sometimes! Not so much in London, but in the U.S. it’s crazy. Also, for those who have never seen me in person, I’m quite short. I have an overly … wavy body.”
“I’m not like the girl next door who is easy to cast. I don’t fit into any of the stereotypes of a woman that should continue to work. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think it has anything to do with planning. It has something to do with karma, maybe. I believe in karma.”
