Chloé Zhao will never forget one particular night shoot while filming “Eternals,” Marvel’s upcoming movie about a group of immortals living on Earth whose leader is Ajak, played by Salma Hayek.
It was a cold and drizzly evening on location in an English forest in the fall of 2019, and the Oscar-winning director told the cast, which includes Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani, that they could return to their trailers while some technical issues were being resolved and it was unclear when the cameras would start rolling again
.But Hayek remained on set, sitting on an apple box while listening to Nils Frahm’s song “Says” on her earphones. “I think she saw that I was overwhelmed, so she asked me to take a moment with her,” Zhao recalls.
“She got me to sit by her and rest my head on her lap, and she put her earphones over my ears. It was some kind of calming musical soundscape. We just sat there quietly while the hectic scene went on around us. It was the five minutes I really needed in that moment. I remember thinking, this is what Ajak would do with her healing power if she sees one of her Eternals in trouble.”
