Salma Hayek Explains the Connection Between 'The Prophet' and Her Grandfather

https://youtu.be/dE1vOCcs6cU

Keeping it all in the family.

Salma Hayek takes great pride in producing "Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet" and playing the voice of Kamila because the original piece of literature holds a special place in her heart.
"The Prophet" was a book that was sitting [near] my grandfather, who was Lebanese. [It was] on his bedside table," Hayek tells Made in Hollywood. "Many years later - maybe I was 19 - I found this book in someone's house, and I recognized it was the same as my grandfather's."

Once she took notice of the book, she was immediately reminded of the close bond she shared with her relative.

"It's incredible to think that I forgot so many things, but this, I didn't," she says. "So I read it. And when I read it, for me, it was like my grandfather was talking to me and teaching me about the things of life."

But did Hayek originally consider making the collection of wise poems into a now-animated film?

"A lot of the things that really touch you or that you love are books that do not make a good film," she says. "It's a philosophy book of poetry. How do you make that film? I wanted to make a film that was about connecting. Right now, when you say 'connection,' everybody thinks of the internet. And I wanted to make a film about human connection."

Hayek believes there is something in the film - which hits theaters on Friday - for everyone.

"We make these beautiful poems, and it's all in animation," she says. "And they are all amazing art, very different from each other. So, you are watching a film, and then you take a vacation, and you have a journey inside of yourself."

Watch the trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucCINNKQQCI