Salma Hayek Dishes on Awkward Encounter With Eminem Backstage at the Oscars

Salma Hayek shared the details of her backstage encounter with Eminem at the Oscars this year, and she admitted it was awkward. Hayek was mortified to appear clumsy in front of the rapper, saying that she is a huge fan. Thankfully, as she revealed in her Instagram post, it was all worth it.

Hayek took the stage at the Oscars 2020 immediately after Eminem’s surprise performance. The rapper came out to perform “Lose Yourself,” the anthem of his movie 8 Mile, which won an Oscar in 2003.

Even Hayek did not know about Eminem’s performance, she explained. In her Instagram caption, she was star-struck by the rapper as she waited to take his place on stage. When they passed each other, she said, she spilled water all over him.

“If you examine our faces, I look mortified and he looks terrified of me — as I was trying to wipe it off I impulsively hugged him,” she wrote.

Hayek said that she even blurted out that she’s “a HUGE fan” while hugging Eminem. Afterwards, she was “so disappointed that I made such a fool of myself in front of him,” but she soon discovered she had nothing to worry about.

Two days after the Oscars, Eminem gave an interview about his surprise performance in Rolling Stone. He told the magazine about the decision to reprise an older song, and to take the Oscars stage so many years after he was first invited. Hayek, however, had eyes only for one brief aside in the article.

“Did [Eminem] enjoy his belated Oscars spotlight? ‘Absolute,’ he said. ‘I got to hug Salma Hayek!’” the article read.

To Hayek, this was apparently enough to make the awkward moment worth it, as she learned that her admiration for Eminem is mutual. The rapper made history back in 2003 when his semi-autobiographical rap drama 8 Mile won an Oscar. According to a report by Variety, the Oscars’ organizers were planning a tribute to past winners of in the best original songs category. Eminem agreed to perform since he did not get to attend the Oscars in the year that he won.

“I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it [in 2003], maybe it would be cool,” he said. “Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed ‘Lose Yourself’ on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea. And also, back at that time, the younger me didn’t really feel like a show like that would understand me.”