Discussing their characters, Hayek says that Elena has to run a drug cartel for 'the survival of her family,' while Lively dishes that O dates two men at a time because 'she doesn't have a family.'
- Jul 6, 2012
AceShowbiz - Salma Hayek and Blake Lively play enemies in Oliver Stone's "Savages", but the two actresses refused to define their relationship in the film simply as "good vs. evil." Taking time to discuss their characters with MTV News, Hayek and Lively revealed that each of them has different motivation behind their actions.
Hayek plays the film's major villain Elena, a heartless Mexican cartel boss who teams up with a cold-blooded man Lado (Benicio Del Toro). Together, they kidnap Lively's O after her two boyfriends refused to sell their business to Elena. Explaining what drove a woman like Elena to run such illegal business, Hayek said, "My character's motivation is the survival of her family."
"If she doesn't step up when her husband is killed and take over [running the drug cartel], they would have killed her other children because they had already killed some other people in her family, and she had to step up," the Oscar-nominated actress elaborated further.
Contrary to Elena's rough life, Lively's O seems to live peacefully with her two drug-dealer boyfriends Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson). "She's all about love and hope," so said the Serena van der Woodsen of TV series "Gossip Girl".
"She's lacking a father, her mother is always off with a different husband, and she doesn't have a family," the 24-year-old starlet added. "She needs that love and reassurance and she gets that. She creates her own family, and that's with two men. She's in a relationship with two different men, and they're each other's family."
The "Green Lantern" star continued, "Even when she's with her kidnapper, she falls in love with her kidnapper," to which Hayek responded, "That would be me by the way."
"It's a void that she's missing," Lively explained. "In no way other than it fills that emotional void, it helps you understand the things that they do that are hard to understand like, how could you be in a relationship with two people? ... When you understand that love is the driving force, people will do anything for it."
"Savages" follows two best friends Chon and Ben who date the same woman and distribute the best-quality pot on the planet. When they resist being muscled by Elena, their girl is kidnapped and the ransom is every cent they've made for the last five years. The two buddies finally agree to pay but hatch an alternate plan to get their girlfriend back, get revenge, and then get lost.
Also starring John Travolta, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir, the violent action thriller will make its way out onto the U.S. cinemas on July 6.
