Salma Hayek has John C. Reilly to thank for making her feel great on the set of new film Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant - because he thought the Mexican star looked beautiful behind a beard!

The Frida star plays a bearded woman in the carnival movie and admits she felt far from attractive as her facial hair was being patched on daily.

She says, "I never got used to wearing the beard but John C. Reilly made me feel good about it, telling me I looked so hot with the beard. It's like people telling you, when I was a whale and swollen from the pregnancy and I'd never looked worse in my life, and they say, 'You glow!' They have no words to tell you how bad you look. Even though I felt gross with the beard, they made me feel good about it."

And she fears she may have scarred her daughter for life - because she had to show her mommy with a beard.

Hayek tells WENN, "She was with me the whole time and I had to show her the beard otherwise I wouldn't see her the whole day; it's not like I could put it on and off. She was seven months old when she saw the beard and she knew it was make-up so she was not freaking out. I explained to her the process and she was fascinated looking at it. She kept wanting to touch it because it was fake."

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Image © Janet Mayer / PR Photos

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Image © Universal Pictures

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)