Salma Hayek toughened up to land Stone movie role

Salma Hayek had to prove she was tough enough to play the head of a drug cartel in Oliver Stone's upcoming movie Savages, because the director feared motherhood had turned her "all soft".

The Frida star has scaled down her work load since becoming a mother to four-year-old daughter Valentina and settling down with her husband Francois-Henri Pinault, and her comfortable home life had Stone worried she wasn't right for the leading role in the crime thriller.

Salma Hayek tells Redbook magazine, "I'm playing the queen of a drug cartel in an Oliver Stone film. He asked if I'd gone 'all soft' because I'm a mother. I said, 'Yes, but I can be the devil if I need to, because after all, I'm an actress.'"

Savages also stars John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro and Blake Lively.