Salma Hayek Opens Up About Harvey Weinstein Sexual Harassment and Death Threats
Salma Hayek is the latest in a long list of actresses who is telling her Harvey Weinstein story. On Tuesday (December 12), the lauded actress penned an op-ed piece for The New York Times entitled "Harvey Weinstein is My Monster Too" that details an abusive history with the now infamous movie mogul, including sexual harassment that escalated into death threats when she would not accept his advances.
"The range of his persuasion tactics went from sweet-talking me to that one time when, in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, 'I will kill you, don’t think I can’t,'" she wrote.
The tension peaked while Hayek was filming her passion project, 2002's Frida. "ironically, once we started filming, the sexual harassment stopped but the rage escalated,” she recalled, explaining the fury he showed when he saw her character's lack of sex appeal.
"He offered me one option to continue. He would let me finish the film if I agreed to do a sex scene with another woman. And he demanded full-frontal nudity," she remembered.
"He had been constantly asking for more skin, for more sex. Once before, Julie Taymor got him to settle for a tango ending in a kiss instead of the lovemaking scene he wanted us to shoot between the character Tina Modotti, played by Ashley Judd, and Frida.
"But this time, it was clear to me he would never let me finish this movie without him having his fantasy one way or another. There was no room for negotiation."
The actresses did end up shooting the scene, which ended with Hayek in tears and vomiting, “not because I would be naked with another woman. It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein.”
Once the film was finished, Weinstein said it wasn't good enough to be in theaters and would go straight to video. Hayek and Taymor fought, and won, Frida went on to win two Academy awards.
Read the full op-ed piece here.