Exclusive: Salma Hayek Reacts to Killing of Zetas Cartel Leader, Talks About the Future of Mexico

Oct. 10, 2012— -- Besides reminding everyone that she's still one of the hottest actresses -- not to mention Latinas - in Hollywood, Salma Hayek set the record straight last night at the premiere of her new movie on how she feels about her native Mexico.

In the PG comedy Here Comes The Boom, Salma plays Kevin James' love interest and the school nurse every guy dreams of. The Mexican powerhouse, 46, spoke to a handful of journos about working with James – a personal friend of hers and someone she seems very comfortable with – and why she loves doing comedy.

But the main thing I had to ask Salma face-to-face was how she felt about those infamous quotes she allegedly gave Vogue Germany in a cover story interview a few months back – the ones where she supposedly expressed Mexican amnesia.

As we pointed out in our article around the time when those quotes were being circulated, that didn't sound like something Salma would say. In a Latina magazine cover story late last year, she spoke at length about her memories growing up in Mexico. It seemed she remembered everything – especially her grandmother Maria Luisa, who inspired her new cosmetics line - like it was yesterday.

Salma had this to say about getting lost in translation:

"We still don't even know if that's what was really published in the article in Germany or if it was something that someone read and misinterpreted and then put it on the Internet."

All too often the case, it seems. Just ask Jessica Alba.

"It doesn't make sense," Salma told me on Tuesday night at the red carpet. "I would never…No one forgets what it is to be Mexican!" she added, raising her voice for emphasis.

Since she played a ruthless cartel leader to perfection this past summer in Oliver Stone's Savages, I just had to ask her thoughts on the recent killing by Mexican armed forces of the Zetas cartel leader Heriberto Lazcano aka "The Executioner" aka "Z-3", and whether she has hope that her country will one day go back to being the way it was before the drug war.

"Absolutely, yes, it can go back [to being the country it was before the drug war]," Salma said. "Or perhaps it can even be a better version of itself. I can't tell you exactly how [it can get there], but we should never lose hope or forget to dream. We all need to change, one by one, and start to believe in it so that it can be possible. I have a lot of faith that it's possible."

Now that sounds like something Salma would say.