Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein has finally broken his silence, denying claims that he sexually harassed actress Salma Hayek and forced her to do a nude lesbian sex scene for the biopic Frida.
‘Mr. Weinstein does not recall pressuring Salma to do a gratuitous sex scene with a female costar and he was not there for the filming,’ his rep said in a lengthy statement on Thursday to Deadline.
‘However, that was part of the story, as Frida Kahlo was bisexual and the more significant sex scene in the movie was choreographed by Ms. Hayek with Geoffrey Rush,’ the statement continued.
The statement is especially remarkable in that it is believed to be Weinstein’s first rebuttal of the myriad allegations against him since October, when through a spokesperson he forcefully denied claims made by actress Lupita Nyong’o.
Trapped: Salma Hayek is revealing that she was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein for years, claiming she repeatedly turned down his advances (Hayek above with Weinstein in 2010)
Hayek said she was nauseous and suffered a nervous breakdown realizing she would finally be getting naked for Weinstein after years of his demands
On Wednesday, Hayek claimed she was harassed and propositioned by Weinstein for close to a decade.
In a powerful op-ed published in The New York Times, Hayek claimed that Weinstein had harassed her for years, pressuring her to take showers with him, let him watch her shower, let a naked friend massage her, and let him perform oral sex – all of which Hayek says she firmly refused.
The new statement from Weinstein’s rep did not directly respond to those allegations saying only: ‘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.’
Hayak’s most explosive claim was that, after jumping through countless hoops to complete work on her dream project, the Frida Kahlo biopic Frida, she was told by Weinstein that he would not release the picture unless she performed a naked lesbian sex scene.
The response bluntly denied that claim, saying that Weinstein ‘overruled other investors to back Salma as the lead’ and did not recall pressuring her to do a gratuitous sex scene.
Oddly, Weinstein’s statement zeroed in on a minor point in Hayek’s op-ed, her claim that ‘Halfway through shooting, Harvey turned up on set and complained about Frida’s “unibrow”.’
‘The original uni-brow used was an issue because it diverted attention from the performances,’ Weinstein’s rep sniffed in the statement.
Weinstein explained that he asked to change the unibrow Hayek wore in Frida because it ‘diverted attention from the performances’
Tango: When she managed to pull the film together on her own Weinstein demanded she do a nude sex scene to get the film released (Hayek above in Frida)
Hayek also detailed her experiences with Weinstein’s notorious temper, claiming he once told her: ‘I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.’
She also recalled Weinstein ‘physically dragging me out of the opening gala of the Venice Film Festival, which was in honor 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.’
Weinstein appeared to respond to that claim in the statement, saying: ‘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.’
Hayek had long spoken about her Frida film being the dream project she yearned to one day make in Hollywood, and did everything in her power to make that become a reality.
She stopped short however of giving into Weinstein’s demands for sex, and for that he retaliated in the harshest way possible, according to Hayek.
‘When he was finally convinced that I was not going to earn the movie the way he had expected, he told me he had offered my role and my script with my years of research to another actress,’ writes Hayek.
‘In his eyes, I was not an artist. I wasn’t even a person. I was a thing: not a nobody, but a body.’
Hayek refused to back down however, and filed a ‘bad faith’ lawsuit against Weinstein, which opened the door for her to get the project back off the ground again.
Weinstein demanded she then raise $10 million, get an A-list director, rewrite the script and find four bankable stars to appear alongside her in supporting roles if she wanted to gain control of the film she had personally ushered through pre-production.
Once filming commenced, he got worse claims Hayek, who said: ‘He told me that the only thing I had going for me was my sex appeal and that there was none of that in this movie. So he told me he was going to shut down the film because no one would want to see me in that role.’
That is when he told her she needed to add the sex scene and she agreed as a way to see her film finally get into theaters.
‘I arrived on the set the day we were to shoot the scene that I believed would save the movie,’ reveals Hayek.
‘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.’
Hayek later notes: ‘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.’
She says that she eventually took a tranquilizer and made it through the scene, with filming on the project wrapping up soon after that difficult day.
Victory: In the end, Hayek was nominated for an Oscar and the film scored six nods total, winning two Academy Awards
Cruel: After close to a decade of refusing his demands for showers, naked massages, oral sex and threesomes, Hayek claims Weinstein refused to let her star in Frida (Frida director Julie Taymor with Hayek and Weinstein)
That is when Weinstein suddenly declared he did not want to release the picture in theaters, according to Hayek.
He agreed if the screening managed to score over an 80 with a test audience.
In the end, Hayek’s hard work paid off for Weinstein despite his best efforts to ruin all she had managed to achieve on the project.
‘Months later, in October 2002, this film, about my hero and inspiration — this Mexican artist who never truly got acknowledged in her time with her limp and her unibrow, this film that Harvey never wanted to do, gave him a box office success that no one could have predicted, and despite his lack of support, added six Academy Award nominations to his collection, including best actress,’ writes Hayek.
It went on to win two Oscars.
Hayek closed her piece by expressing how grateful she is to be able to share her story.
‘I am grateful for everyone who is listening to our experiences. I hope that adding my voice to the chorus of those who are finally speaking out will shed light on why it is so difficult, and why so many of us have waited so long,’ writes the actress.
‘Men sexually harassed because they could. Women are talking today because, in this new era, we finally can.’