Salma Hayek shares harrowing story of Harvey Weinstein's behavior on 'Frida': 'I will kill you, don’t think I can't'
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
- Salma Hayek wrote a New York Times op-ed alleging that Harvey Weinstein made inappropriate demands and threats toward her during the making of the 2002 film "Frida."
- Hayek wrote that Weinstein threatened to "kill" her and replace her on the film after she rejected his numerous sexual advances and demands.
- "Frida," produced by Weinstein's Miramax company, would go on to earn six Oscar nominations.
Actress Salma Hayek wrote an op-ed for The New York Times on Wednesday detailing a harrowing account of working with disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein on the 2002 movie "Frida."
In the op-ed, Hayek wrote about how Weinstein made inappropriate demands and threats toward her as she attempted to get the film, based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Khalo, produced by Weinstein's studio, Miramax.
Hayek wrote that turning down Weinstein's demands included her saying, "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."
After she rejected his numerous demands, Hayek said that Weinstein, "in an attack of fury," told her, "I will kill you, don't think I can't," before saying that he would offer the role to another actress.
MiramaxHayek wrote that she ended up giving into one of Weinstein's demands, which was that Miramax would make the film if she agreed do a sex scene with another woman that included "full-frontal nudity."
"In his eyes, I was not an artist," Hayek wrote. "I wasn’t even a person. I was a thing: not a nobody, but a body."
The sex scene deeply troubled Hayek, she wrote, describing having to take a tranquilizer to stop "crying and convulsing" as she performed the scene.
Hayek's account of Weinstein's harassment and intimidation tactics falls in line with the multitude of women who have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault.
"When Harvey saw the cut film, he said it was not good enough for a theatrical release and that he would send it straight to video," Hayek wrote.
That was not the case.
"Frida" would go on to be a commercial success and earn six Oscar nominations for Miramax, including a best actress nod for Hayek's portrayal of Khalo.
Weinstein's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read Hayek's column for The New York Times.
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