Salma Hayek threw water over Eminem

Salma Hayek threw water over Eminem at the Oscars because she was so shocked to see him.

The 53-year-old actress came face-to-face with the rapper backstage at Sunday's (Feb 9) Academy Awards after his surprise performance of Lose Yourself.

She thought the 47-year-old star was "terrified" of her, while she felt "mortified" because of her reaction.

Salma shared pictures on Instagram in which she grabbed Eminem's black t-shirt while they stared open-mouthed at one another.

She captioned the professional images: "In these pictures it might look like @Eminem and I are best friends, but what really happened was as he was walking offstage and I was getting ready to walk onstage, I was so shocked to see him that I spilled water all over him.

"If you examine our faces, I look mortified and he looks terrified of me. As I was trying to wipe it off I impulsively hugged him and I said 'Nice to meet you Eminem - I'm a HUGE fan!' because I AM!"

In a second picture, the pair hugged and posed properly for a photo but Salma admitted she wished their meeting had gone better - though she did find a silver lining.

She wrote: "But I was so disappointed that I made such a fool of myself in front of him... and then I read this [swipe right] in @rollingstone. Eminem you're the greatest!!! If you want to read the entire article with #Eminem please see my link in bio."

The link led to an article in which Eminem was asked if he had enjoyed the Oscars.

He replied: "Absolutely. I got to hug Salma Hayek!"

He didn't perform or appear at the 2003 Academy Awards when Lose Yourself - from his film 8 Mile - won Best Original Song. He recently explained he agreed to make the surprise appearance this year because it would be "cool" after snubbing it the first time round because he didn't think the event "understood" him.

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He admitted: "I kinda figured maybe since I didn't get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool.

"Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed Lose Yourself on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn't think it was a good idea.

"And also, back at that time, the younger me didn't really feel like a show like that would understand me.

"But then when I found out I won, 'That's crazy!' That to me shows how authentic and real that award is - when you don't show up and you still win. That makes it very real to me."