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Salma Hayek: 'Harvey Weinstein forced me into a sex scene with Ashley Judd.'

It’s been more than two months since allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, 65, were made public.

But while the famed producer has been fired from the company that bore his name, dumped by his fashion designer wife, removed from the most prestigious boards and academies of Hollywood, and gone into hiding, the women he terrorised for decades are definitely not done telling their story. Not after all these years.

And today, it’s Oscar-nominated actor Salma Hayek’s time to share her story.

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The 51-year-old actress is sharing her story of being harassed by the producer for years. Image via Getty.

In an emotional essay for The New York Times, titled 'Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too',the 51-year-old star says the producer turned from the "family man" she had always believed him to be into a man who would not take no for an answer when they began working together on the 2002 film Frida.

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"He had taken a chance on me — a nobody. He had said yes," she wrote of Weinstein - then the head of Miramax films - agreeing to develop her passion project, a film about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

"Little did I know it would become my turn to say no.

"No to opening the door to him at all hours of the night, hotel after hotel, location after location, where he would show up unexpectedly, including one location where I was doing a movie he wasn’t even involved with.

LISTEN: Mamamia Out Loud unpack the Weinstein story. Post continues after audio.

"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."

Revealing that Weinstein didn't hate "anything more than the word 'no'", Hayek said at one stage he threatened to kill her for rejecting his advances.

salma hayek harvey weinstein
Salma Hayek and Harvey Weinstein in 2003. Image via Getty.
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"In an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, 'I will kill you, don't think I can't'," she wrote.

As the pair continued to work on Frida together, Hayek said Weinstein was continuously bothered by the lack of her character's "sex appeal".

Threatening to shut down the film, she said Weinstein offered her one sadistic option: he would let the film finish shooting if Hayek agreed to do a sex scene with another actress, Ashley Judd. Complete with full-frontal nudity.

"It was clear to me he would never let me finish this movie without him having his fantasy one way or another. There was no room for negotiation," Hayek said.

 

salma hayek ashley judd
Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd in 2006. Image via Getty.
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Hayek said the morning the scene was meant to be shot, she had a "nervous breakdown", shaking uncontrollably, unable to stop her tears from flowing and vomiting.

It wasn't because she would be naked with another woman.

"It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein," she said.

The film went on to be a critical and box office success. It earned eight Academy Award nominations. Hayek was never offered a starring role in a Weinstein film ever again, and remained cordial when she ran into the producer at public events, smiling politely.

But years later, Hayek has finally realised it's time she told her story.

Read Salma Hayek's full opinion piece in the New York Times.