A-lister Salma Hayek on Wednesday joined the scores of
actresses to accuse Harvey Weinstein, alleging that the fallen Hollywood
mogul sexually harassed her, subjected her to escalating rage and once
threatened to kill her.
"For years, he was my monster,"
the Mexican-born star wrote in an essay published in The New York Times,
detailing the torturous production of the 2002 movie Frida that eventually earned Hayek an Oscar nomination for best actress.
After
reaching a deal for Weinstein to pay for the rights to the movie that
would eventually catapult her to household fame, the now 51-year-old
actress and producer said it became "my turn to say no."
"No to opening the door to him at all hours of the night, hotel after hotel, location after location," she wrote.
"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."
Weinstein's
"Machiavellian rage" accompanied every refusal and once included "the
terrifying words, 'I will kill you, don't think I can't," she said.
After
jumping through impossible demands set by Weinstein to keep the movie
on track, Hayek said the sexual harassment stopped once filming began
"but the rage escalated."
Weinstein berated her
performance, chided her for a role that showed no sex appeal and agreed
to let her finish only if she agreed to do a sex scene with another
woman, and demanded "full-frontal nudity," she said.
When
it came to shooting the scene, Hayek said she suffered a nervous
breakdown and had to take a tranquilizer. When the movie was finished,
Weinstein allegedly said it was not good enough for theatrical release
and threatened to send it straight to video.
Frida
-- a critically acclaimed biopic about the life of Mexican painter
Frida Kahlo -- eventually won two Oscars and grossed more than $56
million at the box office.
"Until there is equality in
our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect
of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for
predators," Hayek wrote.
"Men sexually harassed because they could. Women are talking today because, in this new era, we finally can."
More
than 100 women have publicly accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct
ranging from harassment to rape since exposes published in the Times and
The New Yorker in early October. The scandal has finished his career,
upended his company and ended his marriage.
He denied Hayek's sexual abuse charges through a spokesperson.
"All
of the sexual allegations as portrayed by Salma are not accurate and
others who witnessed the events have a different account of what
transpired," the spokesperson said.
And "by Mr
Weinstein’s own admission, his boorish behavior following a screening of
'Frida' was prompted by his disappointment in the cut of the movie --
and a reason he took a firm hand in the final edit, alongside the very
skilled director Julie Taymor," the spokesperson added.
