Ashley alight

Interview, Sept, 1998 by Salma Hayek

SH: So the weather affects your mood?

AJ: It really did in Montreal.

SH: What about the moon?

AJ: Yeah, I can get a little crazy, a little sentimental, a little ripe.

SH: Are you affected by the smells of places?

AJ: Oh, love, you don't even know. I rented a house that has a huge, beautiful, warm, umbery-colored master bedroom, but every night I'd go up into the little hovel of an attic to sleep, because it reminded me of my grandparents and I could smell the pine trees through the windows.

SH: Now, Kiss the Girls opened huge - a lot bigger than anybody expected. You were a star before that, but I don't know if the industry really understood your star power until then. Do you get a feeling that the audience knew something the studios didn't?

AJ: Hmm. You know, before Kiss the Girls opened I was a little nervous. I was in a very rural and remote part of Canada, shooting Simon Birch -

SH: I was there with you. I came to visit, remember?

AJ: Yes. I got a little bit anxious, because I thought that maybe my life was going to change a lot. I called both my morn and my sister. As it turned out, it all was free, but the sweet thing was that my sister, having heard my tone, called me back with her son, Elijah, who's two and a half, and he left me a message. It was very cute, because he said his sister's name before he said mine. It was like he was consoling all the women in his life. He said, "Be OK, Gracie; he OK, Ashley. I love you. I miss you. I pray for you." And I still have it on my voice mail.

SH: That changed everything.

AJ: OK, what else? Sock it to me.

SH: Do you want to talk about your passion for basketball?

AJ: Oh, my Cats! My Kentucky Wildcats! I love them.

SH: You fly around the country just to watch them play?

AJ: Yes. And it blew my mind when I started to get wind of the fact that they actually liked me being around. That was humbling, because Kentucky basketball is a big deal, and I am not the biggest fan - I am just the most notorious one. [laughs]

SH: Oh, my God. Do you like guys who are into sports?

AJ: Umm . . .

SH: Or Just guys who are into music . . .

AJ: Ahem!

SH: OK. Do you want to have kids?

AJ: Salma . . .

SH: I know it started hitting me this year. I think you'd be fantastic mother.

AJ: I love carrying my niece around like a little sack of potatoes. She's awesome. She hooks her arms through mine when I've got her on my hip, and I think, "Right on." I think that, as with marriage, you just know when it's time to have kids.

SH: Because you grew up with two strong women and because you are a girls' girl, would you like to have a girl?

AJ: I have to have a girl. I think it would be a wonderful thing to have a boy, too, because he would simply come through me and would be slightly less me. Because, obviously, when I see a little girl, I'm seeing myself, even though it may not be conscious. And the encouragement I give her is a way of loving myself.