Salma Hayek claimed in an op-ed published by The New York Times on Wednesday, December 13, that Harvey Weinstein made several inappropriate sexual demands on the set of the 2002 film Frida.
“Harvey Weinstein was a passionate cinephile, a risk taker, a patron of talent in film, a loving father and a monster. For years, he was my monster,” the Mexican actress, 51, began her powerful editorial.
Hayek said she was approached by several reporters this fall to speak about her experience with Weinstein, 65, after he was accused of sexual harassment and assault by dozens of other women. “I didn’t consider my voice important, nor did I think it would make a difference,” she wrote, adding that she felt “ashamed” to describe the alleged incidents.
The Oscar nominee then listed all of the disgraced film producer’s alleged demands that she said she denied when they worked together: “No to opening the door to him at all hours of the night, hotel after hotel, location after location, where he would show up unexpectedly, including one location where I was doing a movie he wasn’t even involved with. No to me taking a shower with him. No to letting him watch me take a shower. No to letting him give me a massage. No to letting a naked friend of his give me a massage. No to letting him give me oral sex. No to my getting naked with another woman.”
Each refusal, Hayek wrote, was met with “Harvey’s Machiavellian rage.” At one point, he said, “I will kill you, don’t think I can’t,” she alleged.
Eventually, she gave in to one alleged demand. “He would let me finish the film if I agreed to do a sex scene with another woman,” she claimed, adding that she cried so much on set one day that it was “as if I were throwing up tears.”
The actress also called out President Donald Trump, who was accused during the 2016 presidential campaign of sexual misconduct. “I am inspired by those who had the courage to speak out, especially in a society that elected a president who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women and whom we have all heard make a statement about how a man in power can do anything he wants to women,” she wrote.
In a previous statement to Us Weekly, Weinstein denied allegations of non-consensual sex.
