One of Mexico's most-celebrated actresses, Kate del Castillo, opens up on "Salon Talks" about the traumatic experience of suddenly being defined in relation to two powerful men - Sean Penn and El Chapo..

In 2016, del Castillo faced intense media scrutiny for visiting the famous Mexican drug lord along with actor Sean Penn and two producers. "That's been for sure one of the worst moments in my life," she told SalonTV's Mary Elizabeth Williams on "Salon Talks." "We're storytellers and that was what I was doing, but it went wrong because of this stupid other actor."

Del Castillo says she was unfairly targeted for being a woman. "The thing is that because I'm a woman, they wanted to destroy me in Mexico and they even said that I was, like, la puta of El Chapo," she explained. "You know, that, like, I was having relationships, sexual relationships, with him, that I was, and I'm like, if I was a man, this would've never had happened."

Del Castillo has come back stronger than ever, with a new season "La Reina del Sur" on Netflix and a New York stage debut in the powerful one woman show "the way she spoke." Based on the decades-long plague of femicide in Juarez, it's a drama that's also a call to action.

Watch the video above to hear more about the aftermath of her visit with El Chapo. Watch Kate del Castill's full "Salon Talks" episode to hear about "the way she spoke" and her activism work.