Salma Hayek says Harvey Weinstein had berated her while working on Frida Kahlo biopic

Nov 05, 2021

Washington [US], November 5 : Hollywood actor Salma Hayek has shared new details about working with Harvey Weinstein on the 2002 biopic 'Frida' in which she played the famed Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo.
According to Fox News, the 55-year-old actor recalled how the disgraced movie producer allegedly berated her about her appearance while filming the movie.
Hayek told a news outlet, "He would call me up and scream, 'Why do you have a (unibrow) and mustache? I didn't hire you to look ugly!'" ... I was like, 'But didn't you ever look at a picture of Frida Kahlo?'"
"If a man was playing Cyrano de Bergerac, he wouldn't say, 'What's with the nose?'" Hayek reasoned. She added, "I would shake [afterward] and it did depress me, but there was a cartoon aspect about the whole thing."
Hayek praised herself for being "very strong" when dealing with Weinstein, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020. Hayed said, "I'm a force to be recognized. He never saw me weak. It's not that I'm not afraid, but you're not going to see it. I can be almost intimidating in my calm strength, you know?"
In 2017, Hayek had written about how she constantly rebuffed the 69-year-old's sexual harassment.
At the time, Hayek penned, "I don't think he hated anything more than the word 'no'. The absurdity of his demands went from getting a furious call in the middle of the night asking me to fire my agent for a fight he was having with him about a different movie with a different client to physically dragging me out of the opening gala of the Venice Film Festival, which was in honour of 'Frida,' so I could hang out at his private party with him and some women I thought were models but I was told later were high-priced prostitutes."
"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 s-x. No to my getting naked with another woman. No, no, no, no, no," she remembered.
Hayek also claimed that Weinstein even threatened her life.
She wrote, "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'".
Hayek joined a list of more than 60 women including Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, and Gwyneth Paltrow, accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Weinstein has denied all allegations of harassment and non-consensual sex. Weinstein has denied all allegations of harassment and non-consensual sex, as per Fox News.