Salma Hayek says Harvey Weinstein screamed at her for being 'ugly' on film set
Salma Hayek has opened up about her traumatic experience working with disgraced director Harvey Weinstein, claiming that he screamed at her for being "ugly" while she was filming her 2002 biopic, Frida.
Speaking to the Guardian, the 55-year-old actor went into detail about the years of alleged sexual harassment and bullying she was on the receiving end of from Weinstein – who, in 2020, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault after dozens of women accused him of sexual misconduct, propelling the #MeToo movement.
"I would shake [after he had bullied her] and it did depress me, but there was a cartoon aspect about the whole thing," she explained, "When he would call me up [during the making of Frida] and scream, 'Why do you have a [monobrow] and moustache? 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?'"
When questioned how she was able to repeatedly reject the former film producer's advances, she put it down to her "strength."
"I was very strong," she recalled, "I didn’t just say no. I’m a force to be recognised. 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?"
Sadly, she points out, it's a defence mechanism that many women will be familiar with. "We're girls! So you learn to be brave. It’s not easy, but you have to."
In 2017, Hayek wrote a piece for the New York Times which took a deep-dive into her encounters with Weinstein. In the article, the actor claimed the now 69-year-old had sexually harassed her for years, and listed all of the advances she had been forced to say no to.
"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… And with every refusal came Harvey’s Machiavellian rage," she wrote.
You Might Also Like
