(Anti Media) In a New York Times op-ed titled “Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too,” Salma Hayek shared shocking details of her interactions with disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein during the making of the 2002 film Frida.
Related: Weinstein Scandal Exposes Disney for Giving Convicted Pedophile Access to Kids as Film Director
by Staff Writer, December 14th, 2017
In the op-ed, published Wednesday, Hayek revealed her experiences with Weinstein, including numerous sexual demands from the ousted producer. For example, she claimed Weinstein wanted to shower with her, attempted to enter her hotel room, requested to perform oral sex on her, and made a threat on her life.
Hayek wrote of the numerous instances when she declined Weinstein’s advances during filming. She wrote:
“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. No, no, no, no, no.”
“I don’t think he hated anything more than the word ‘no,’” Hayek continued. “In his eyes, I was not an artist. I wasn’t even a person. I was a thing: not a nobody, but a body.”
Her rejections quickly wore on Weinstein. She recalled that “in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, ‘I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.’”
According to Hayek, Weinstein forced her into a sex scene with a female co-star that resulted in a “nervous breakdown.” The actress took a tranquilizer to continue filming. She says she was so emotionally distraught she was vomiting and sobbing uncontrollably.
A spokesperson for Weinstein responded to Hayek’s allegations in a statement to BuzzFeed’s Kate Aurthur. The representative claimed the disgraced movie executive denied “all of the sexual allegations as portrayed by Salma.”
“Mr. Weinstein does not recall pressuring Salma to do a gratuitous sex scene with a female costar and he was not there for filming,” the statement also said.
Both the New York Times and the New Yorker released details of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct just two months before Hayek’s account was made public. In those two months, dozens of women have come forward with details of their own experiences with Weinstein. It also came to light that Weinstein employed an Israeli-based company that works with former Mossad agents to spy on Weinstein’s would-be accusers. The accusations have resulted in Weinstein losing his job, his wife, and his position in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The accusations have spurred a class action lawsuit against Weinstein, as well as an NYPD investigation into a rape allegation in New York City that the department has deemed credible. The claims against Weinstein have also inspired countless other women to share their own experiences with sexual predators in Hollywood and other industries.
In her op-ed, Hayek touched on the reasons she and so many women did not speak out earlier:
“I hid from the responsibility to speak out with the excuse that enough people were already involved in shining a light on my monster. … In reality, I was trying to save myself the challenge of explaining several things to my loved ones: Why, when I had casually mentioned that I had been bullied like many others by Harvey, I had excluded a couple of details. And why, for so many years, we have been cordial to a man who hurt me so deeply.”
Hayek closed her op-ed with a reminder of why she and others continue to step out of the shadows:
“I hope that adding my voice to the chorus of those who are finally speaking out will shed light on why it is so difficult, and why so many of us have waited so long. Men sexually harassed because they could. Women are talking today because, in this new era, we finally can.”
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