In a 2017 role recall interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Salma Hayek musedthat the 2011 animated hit Puss in Boots __ — in which she voiced thetitular feline hero’s feisty rival/love interest Kitty Softpaws — marked thefirst time Hollywood hired her for her Mexican accent, not shunning her forit.
Needless to say, Hayek, 56, was eager to reprise the role of Kitty in theinevitable sequel to the Shrek spin-off that grossed more than $550 million.But then she waited… and waited… and waited. “We were hoping this would happenfor over a decade, Antonio and I,” she told us in a recent interview,referring of course to Antonio Banderas, whose swashbuckling tabby cat withthose impossibly swoony eyes first stole the show in 2004’s Shrek II.“Because they told us the first movie was a huge success.”
There were a couple of false starts, to the point where Hayek said it feltlike The Boy Who Cried Wolf any time they would hear the sequel was inmotion again.
So what took so long for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish to finally hittheaters this week? The follow up to How to Train Your Dragon — anotherDreamWorks animated series, for example — came out four years later, with athird installment five years after that.
There were a variety of reasons for the long gestation, Banderas says.DreamWorks changed hands, from Paramount to Universal, in 2016. There werechanges at director (Guillermo del Toro was even among those temporarilyonboard) before Joel Crawford eventually stepped in. There was a pandemic in2020, maybe you’ve heard.
“And I suppose that actually has to do also with a scare that I had in 2017,in which I almost lost my life,” Banderas told us in a recent interview. InJanuary of that year, the now-62-year-old Spanish-born actor suffered a heartattack. In seemingly fine health at the time, he was rushed to the hospitaland later underwent surgery to have three stents implanted into his coronaryarteries. (He has since called the health scare “one of the best things that’shappened in my life” for changing his perspective on what’s most important tohim.)
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Fittingly then, and perhaps not so coincidentally, The Last Wish centersaround the mortality of its hero. When Puss is killed in action in the earlygoings (you may want to warn the kiddos), he’s told in the afterlife that hehas one of his nine lives left. This eventually sends Puss on an adventure,joined by Kitty and scene-stealing newcomer Perrito (Harvey Guillén) to thefind the mystical “Last Wish” in hopes Puss can restore his lives lost.
“It’s very daring, actually, that a movie that is for young people justreflects [on] these issues openly, in a very elegant way, and very carefully,too,” Banderas says. “I think it’s a beautiful proposal because it’s donebeautifully. I was surprised that we were going there. But if there’s [any]character that can do it, it’s Puss in Boots.”
Hayek says the 11-year interval between movies “was worth waiting for theright situation,” pointing to Crawford. “The right 400 people involved,because that’s what it takes to make one of these movies.”
‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ (Photo: DreamWorks/Universal)
One of those “right” people is Guillén ( What We Do in the Shadows ), whosehilarious hyperactive therapy dog Perrito is to The Last Wish what Pusswas to Shrek II. He chews up the scenery like it’s a bone.
Not that the actor will acknowledge his star turn.
“I didn’t steal anything,” he laughs. “I just wanted to be as authentic as Icould with Perrito, [that was never] my thought to process. To hear that isvery nice, thank you for the compliment, but he’s just a nice addition to thisworld, I think. And his energy is something I think everyone can long for,especially with the last couple years that we’ve had and the world that welive in.”
As a newcomer to the series, Crawford ( Croods: A New Age ) loved seeing(hearing) Banderas and Hayek continue to put their own distinct twists on thecharacters.
“They bring so much to it, not just knowing their characters, but alsoculturally,” he says.
“It’s important to include our culture, who we are, our language,” Hayekresponds.
Harvey Guillén, Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas arrive for the premiere of’Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ in New York City on Dec.13, 2022. (Photo:Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
That returns to what Hayek told us in 2017, an experience Banderas says heshared as well.
“I arrived to the United States in the beginning of the ’90s, I was 31 yearsold when I got there, 32 when I did my first American movie, and I didn’tspeak the language,” he explains. “So the fact that they called me 10 yearslater, just for the use of my voice, that was unprecedented. It wasunexplainable to me. But in a way, it also [meant] the acceptance of theSpanish community in Hollywood.
“This was a movie aimed at young audiences. And the fact that the hero of themovie has an accent, and the fact that some of the bad guys, they don’t, heopens a door for diversity and to change the [minds] of those young people tothink in a different way. To think that everything is possible and we are notanswering to [stereotypes]. You know, there are good people in every communityand bad people in every community, and that’s how life operates. We are notgood or bad because of the color of our skin or the accent that we have. Andthat was an important message for the Spanish community. This this characteris adored all around the world, in many different countries. By the Spanishcommunity, he is worshiped.”
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is now playing.