Salma Hayek has been very vocal about her character in the Eternals and with it being changed from a man of might and strength in the comics to a woman of wits and compassion in the movie version. She describes each of the other members of the team from the point of view of Ajak and how she treats them like her own children.
In a set visit of Marvel for Eternals, Salma Hayek shares more about Ajak and her character's relationship with each of the other Eternals. Hayek reveals that she had a discussion with director Chloe Zhao on how she would approach her character and she explicitly asked if Ajak could stand as a mother figure for the Eternals with something bolder like being Mother Earth. Zhao shaped her character more into the concept making Ajak more interesting.
Hayek is extremely excited about being a superhero that she shared with the press how happy she was when she got a random call of an offer to be a heroine in a Marvel movie, Hayek said, "I'm, ‘Are you kidding me? This is a joke.' A Mexican woman in her 50s, you just got a super hero character in the Marvel movie, and not the gran."
Hayek also added that she loved the approach of the Eternals being a family and in a recent featurette, Kevin Feige described them as a "dysfunctional family unit" despite their superpowers. With Ajak being the mother figure of the Eternals, she described how Ajak treats all of them, "I have a different relationship with each one of them like you do with your kids."
Related: Salma Hayek Teases Larger Eternals vs Deviants Plan
She describes each of the Eternals in an uncanny way, "Kingo is the most vain of them all, and the attention seeker. Thena is the mysterious and you never know what's going to come out of her. She's the strongest, and in some ways, the more fragile, and that's the beauty in her out. This is why I watch out for her."
Hayek added, "Ikaris is the perfectionist. He has to do everything perfect. He's the obsessive compulsive one of the family. And then Gilgamesh is the one with the good heart, the kindest one with the good heart. And I know my Sprite has an attitude, and is sarcastic, and a little bit of a smartass sometimes."
Hayek also said, "Then Druig, oh my god, Druig is the dark one that is always overthinking everything that asks a hundred questions. Makkari is the one that has to know everything; has to know all the facts. Phastos might have to limit the technology time because if I don't pull him out of that, he can just stay there until he dies."
As for the lead of the movie, Sersi, Hayek seems to have seen something special in her, "Sersi is my sweet, lovely girl. Sometimes if you're lucky and you have many kids, you have that one that is just kind, and loving and polite and sweet."
Summing all of it up, Hayek shared something about her character as well, something only Ajak has, "I control the information. I decide what to tell them when I tell them because I'm the only one that can talk to the Celestials." Being a family does not stop on screen, as for Hayek, it was real, "When we're all together, it really felt like a family."
The Eternals are a cosmic race of beings that are so god-like: near-immortal and powerful. Throughout hundreds of years, they witnessed various civilizations rise and die. Millenniums have passed and a conflict still underlies with their creators, the Celestials, and the other race, the Deviants. Every Eternal has a unique superpower due to cosmic energy within them.
See more of how Ajak becomes their mother figure in Marvel's Eternals premiering on November 5, 2021, exclusively in theaters. It is rated PG-13, with almost two-and-a-half hours of runtime, with two extremely important post-credits scenes. Tickets are now available on Fandango.
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