Salma Hayek says Harvey Weinstein forced her into lesbian sex scene with Ashley Judd for the movie Frida, stalked her and threatened to have her killed
HARVEY Weinstein has broken his silence on the torrent of assault claims made against him to deny allegations that he forced actress Salma Hayek to do a nude lesbian sex scene.
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A SPOKESMAN for Harvey Weinstein has released a statement denying Salma Hayek’s allegations that the Hollywood producer forced her to do a lesbian sex scene in the film Frida.
“Mr Weinstein does not recall pressuring Salma to do a gratuitous sex scene with a female co-star and he was not there for the filming,” the statement read.
“All of the sexual allegations as portrayed by Salma are not accurate,” the statement says, claiming other witnesses would have “a different account of what transpired”.
It also points out how much money Miramax spent on the film and says that Weinstein backed Hayek for the role, even though Jennifer Lopez “was a bigger star”.
Spokesman for Harvey Weinstein responds to allegations by actress Salma Hayek https://t.co/qNFrHUzhQ1 pic.twitter.com/DwodeHrwSa
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 14, 2017
It also addresses Hayek’s claims that Edward Norton, who rewrote the script for Frida several times, was never credited. The statement says “Weinstein battled the WGA to get [Norton] a credit on the film” but “his effort was unsuccessful to everyone’s disappointment”.
The response comes after Hayek wrote an explosive opinion piece in which she detailed how she was stalked by Harvey Weinstein for a decade, forced to do a lesbian scene with close friend Ashley Judd to appease him and how he once threatened to kill her.
Hayek writes in The New York Times that once he said he would green light her passion project, Frida, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, she had to start saying no to him.
“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,” she said. “With every refusal came Harvey’s Machiavellian rage. 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.’”
She says that is when he tried to take Frida away from her and cast Jennifer Lopez unless she met a list of demands attached to the film, including getting four prominent stars to cast.
“Much to everyone’s amazement, not least my own, I delivered, thanks to a phalanx of angels who came to my rescue, including Edward Norton, who beautifully rewrote the script several times and appallingly never got credit, and my friend Margaret Perenchio, a first-time producer, who put up the money,” she said.
“The brilliant Julie Taymor agreed to direct, and from then on she became my rock. For the other roles, I recruited my friends Antonio Banderas, Edward Norton and my dear friend Ashley Judd. To this day, I don’t know how I convinced Geoffrey Rush, whom I barely knew at the time. Now Harvey Weinstein was not only rejected but also about to do a movie he did not want to do.”
Hayek said she had poured so much into Frida that when Weinstein demanded she do a lesbian sex scene with Ashley Judd she felt compelled to say yes so as not to see the project scrapped and waste everyone’s hard work and time.
“I arrived on the set the day we were to shoot the scene that I believed would save the movie. And for the first and last time in my career, I had a nervous breakdown: My body began to shake uncontrollably, my breath was short and I began to cry and cry, unable to stop, as if I were throwing up tears,” she said. “Since those around me had no knowledge of my history of Harvey, they were very surprised by my struggle that morning. It was not because I would be naked with another woman. It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein. But I could not tell them then.”
“My mind understood that I had to do it, but my body wouldn’t stop crying and convulsing. At that point, I started throwing up while a set frozen still waited to shoot. I had to take a tranquilliser, which eventually stopped the crying but made the vomiting worse. As you can imagine, this was not sexy, but it was the only way I could get through the scene,” she said.
Hayek says Weinstein never cast her as the lead in a movie again despite Frida getting six Oscar nominations, including one for her portrayal of the Mexican artist, and that she only appeared in supporting roles to fulfil her Miramax contract.
“Years later, when I ran into him at an event, he pulled me aside and told me he had stopped smoking and he had had a heart attack. He said he’d fallen in love and married Georgina Chapman, and that he was a changed man. Finally, he said to me: “You did well with Frida; we did a beautiful movie,’” she said.
“Harvey would never know how much those words meant to me. He also would never know how much he hurt me. I never showed Harvey how terrified I was of him. When I saw him socially, I’d smile and try to remember the good things about him, telling myself that I went to war and I won.”
Utterly heartbreaking. How Harvey Weinstein didn't break @salmahayek is a miracle. https://t.co/vkz7TCZTnC
— Georgina Dent (@georgiedent) December 13, 2017
The internet has come out in support of Hayek, including a number of Hollywood actresses, among them Will and Grace’s Debra Messing, Brooklyn 99’s Stephanie Beatriz, and Scandal’s Kerry Washington. They all thanked Hayek for having the courage to tell her story.
@salmahayek thank you for sharing your harrowing history with Harvey Weinstein. You are a pioneer. A change maker. An Artist. An advocate. You are might, and have a powerful and necessary voice. Carry on.
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) December 14, 2017
Thank you @salmahayek for speaking you very painful truth. It is incredibly brave of you to share and push past your own pain to shed light and keep us all moving towards world in which the stories of women are held in equal value to those of men. https://t.co/8pl8d0LJvF
— Stephanie Beatriz (@iamstephbeatz) December 14, 2017
My dear @salmahayek ðŸ™ðŸ¾ Thank you for your courage. In art. In activism. In life. And in this extraordinary piece. https://t.co/4gaVb3UhDz
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) December 13, 2017
Wow. Thank you, @salmahayek. “We, as women, have been devalued artistically to an indecent state, to the point where the film industry stopped making an effort to find out what female audiences wanted to see and what stories we wanted to tell.†https://t.co/vwPnHmAEfv
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) December 13, 2017
I ask all of our male allies in this industry, why have your journeys been so different from ours?
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 13, 2017
I thank you @salmahayek for sharing your story. Your voice is important and needed right now. You are creating a place of great healing 🌿 https://t.co/Lp8s4ixTlH
Meanwhile others have taken shots at Weinstein’s statement, calling it “tone-deaf”.
Harvey Weinstein's representation just released the most insanely tone-deaf statement on Salma Hayek's op-ed ever. It's too gross to even share.
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) December 14, 2017
Please excuse Harvey Weinstein from fake rehab today. He needs a couple of hours to come up with some of the worst spin in recorded history. pic.twitter.com/xlGcISx2Zn
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) December 14, 2017
Originally published as Salma Hayek says Harvey Weinstein forced her into lesbian sex scene with Ashley Judd for the movie Frida, stalked her and threatened to have her killed