Actress Salma Hayek has been relentlessly bashing Donald Trump for nearly two years and although she says the political views of Trump supporters are frightening to her, her latest movie role has inspired her to seek better understanding of her fellow Americans.

Hayek’s new film, Beatriz at Dinner, sees the actress play a holistic medical practitioner who, during a posh dinner party, clashes with an older, white, Trump-like capitalist played by John Lithgow.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Hayek says the role made her realize she has a “lack of understanding” for Trump supporters, whose thought processes “scare” her.

“The movie takes this polarization and tries to create a communication which, right now we’re not really having. One of the things that scares me the most about what’s happening is my lack of understanding of the other side,” the Oscar-nominated actress said. “I don’t like this. I don’t like to say, “Oh, they are crazy.” No. I want to understand better what is it that they are seeing. Because I live in the U.S. as well as in other countries, and I travel a lot, [I see that] outside of the States, people see it as insanity. They can’t believe it. They think it’s laughable and shocking; they are embarrassed for us.”

“But in the States, there’s a large population that don’t see his actions as anything erratic or stupid or offensive,” Hayek explains. “It scares me; I don’t understand the thought process behind that and I must do it. It is my duty as a citizen to understand the rest of America.”

The Sausage Party star also said “when you are surrounded by only one mentality” — Hollywood, for example — “it’s hard for you to see the other mentality. So, maybe if you step out and take a look beyond your environment, we can start understanding each other and have a conversation. I hope it starts this dialogue.”

The 50-year-old actress, a vocal Hillary Clinton supporter, has long been a critic of President Trump.

In July 2015, Hayek the actress told the Los Angeles Times that then-candidate Trump is entitled to his “stupidity” and he’s “entitled to be dumb.”

In appearance last August on The Late Late Show With James Corden, Hayek offered to lend Trump a copy of U.S. History for Dummies. In April, the actress called the president’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexican border “dumb.”

 

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson