House of Gucci: Salma Hayek recalls ‘mortifying’ experience of filming mud bath scene with Lady Gaga

‘It was horrific,’ said the actor, ‘the most challenging scene I’ve ever done’

Salma Hayek has reflected on the scene she struggled with the most when filming House of Gucci.

The actor plays Pina Auriemma in the new film, a friend and confidant of Lady Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani – the woman convicted of orchestrating the assassination of her ex-husband and former head of the Gucci fashion house, Maurizio Gucci.

During a recent appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Hayek explained that she was set to shoot a scene in a spa with Gaga in which their characters share a mud bath.

“I’ve never done a mud bath – which, by the way, she couldn’t believe it, that I had never done a mud bath – we have a little bit of dialogue before we go in,” said Hayek.

“And once you’re in, you’re naked – well not completely, we had something underneath but nothing on top – and the thing is that, in my head, I was going to sink.”

Hayek recalled Gaga entering the mud bath “like an Egyptian queen” before she got in herself. “Me, with my extra kilos, I sit on the mud and I’m not sinking,” she said. “And I’m trying to [move the mud away from] my huge butt to make some weight [shift].”

She added: “And then it starts moving me around and then there’s the boobs going [back and forth], you know. It’s a very dramatic scene and she’s trying to stay focused and… I’m mortified.”

Hayek said: “It was horrific. Most challenging scene I’ve ever done.”

Hayek and Gaga star alongside Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto and Jeremy Irons in the film.

House of Gucci, which is out on 26 November, is based on Sara Gay Forden’s nonfiction book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed. Read more about the real-life story here.