Salma Hayek says she wishes she'd spoken out against Harvey Weinstein sooner

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Salma Hayek regrets not speaking out sonner against Harvey Weinstein.  Although she was among the first group of women to accuse the disgraced movie mogul of abuse, in 2017, Hayek wonders what would have happened had she acted 15 years earlier.

Speaking with InStyle, the Oscar nominee recounted how she was mistreated by Weinstein when filming her 2002 movie, Frida. Weinstein's company, Miramax, released the film about Mexican painter Frida Kahlo -- a movie that resonated with Hayek because it paid homage to her home country and rebuffed harmful stereotypes.

However, the journey from concept to release was threatened multiple times.  Hayek shares the humiliation and emotional damage she suffered from refusing sexual demands made by Weinstein -- and, as retaliation, he allegedly made lewd changes to the movie as both a form of revenge and sabotage.

Hayek, 54, who detailed her encounters with Weinstein in a 2017 New York Times op-ed, wonders if speaking out sooner would have had any effect. 

"Some people got raped," the Emmy nominee recalled. "It makes you wonder if you had said something [back then], would it have been different?  How come I didn't have the courage?" 

In retrospect, Hayek explains, "I dealt with it to the best of my ability at the time."

The upcoming Hitman’s Wife's Bodyguard star allowed, "For me, Frida was a political statement, a social statement, a feminist statement... It was my way of screaming. And Harvey used my way of screaming to repress me even more. So I could not let him win."

 

Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 12:00PM by Megan Stone Permalink