Bikini photos are social media gold, especially for big stars like Salma Hayek. A photo featuring a celebrity clad in skimpy swimwear is sure to get people talking, and Hayek's recent posts are no exception. Over the past few months, Hayek has shared a slew of cheeky photos in pools and by the ocean. The star recently revealed that she has a "trick" to capturing her picture-perfect moments, all while looking amazing in a bikini. Read on if you want to know Hayek's secret to the perfect bikini picture.
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Salma Hayek's recent Instagram bikini photos are all from last year.
If you've been wondering how Hayek is always poolside looking fit in a bikini, her secret is that she actually isn't. While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on June 15, Hayek spilled her behind-the-scenes secret to her iconic bathing suit pictures. "I have a trick. I go on a diet, like a severe diet, for a short amount of time, right before I go on vacation. I take a lot of pictures. Once I have them in the camera, I start eating again," Hayek revealed. "I save the pictures, and I start releasing them, you know, like every month, every couple of weeks. So that people can think that I stay like that."
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This isn't the first time Hayek has acknowledged this trick.
Hayek isn't shy about her trick, and this isn't the first time she's shamelessly shared the backstory of her buzzworthy Instagram posts. On June 8, InStyle published an interview in which the actor revealed that all her recent bikini photos are from a single trip she took last year. The photos were taken during a Christmas vacation in 2020 ahead of her flying to Italy to film the upcoming Ridley Scott film House of Gucci.
Hayek was tasked with gaining weight for her role in the movie, so she saved the photos to post over the course of the months when she would be putting on pounds. "I don't have any shame in telling you this because I'm excited that I even got to that point," Hayek said. "For a week, I looked like that, you know?" The actor also discussed the work that went into getting her body into shape with Entertainment Tonight in February. "I had to lose a lot of weight and exercise to get into the bikini towards the end of last year," she said at the time. "I'm not in the same condition today."
Hayek began gaining weight for the role right after she took the bikini photos.
DFree/ShutterstockBefore 2021 even began, Hayek found her weight shifting. "It was not even the end of the holiday yet, and I was like, 'OK, bring me caftans!" Hayek told InStyle. The actor said she began taking selfies from the shoulder up and covering up a bit more. However, Hayek admitted that she had a great time gaining weight for her role while in Italy surrounded by delicious food.
"It was like a dream come true. You're in Rome, and you're in a movie, and it's the rounder you are, the better it is for your character. That to me was nirvana," Hayek told Variety. "I swear I would order with a smile on my face: 'I'll have the pasta again.' I love pasta. And it would come, and it would be like guilt-free."
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Losing weight has been harder than gaining it for Hayek.
ShutterstockHayek admitted that trying to shed the weight hasn't been as much fun. She told InStyle that she's only been able to "lose very little." As she rightfully noted, it's so easy to gain weight but much harder to lose it.
Through all of her weight fluctuation, however, the star remains happy with her body. Given "how much mileage I put on my body and how much pressure and judgment I put on it, my body has been incredibly generous," Hayek told InStyle. "I don't think I am some hot tamale, but I know that for my age, for the lifestyle that I lived, I'm not doing too badly."
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