Salma Hayek claimed Weinstein sexually harassed her and even threatened to kill her when she spurned his advances while the pair worked together on her film. Photo / Getty Images
Salma Hayek claimed Weinstein sexually harassed her and even threatened to kill her when she spurned his advances while the pair worked together on her film. Photo / Getty Images
The actress Salma Hayek has claimed Harvey Weinstein threatened to "break" her kneecaps during a campaign of abuse she suffered at the hands of the movie producer.
Hayek, 51, claimed Weinstein sexually harassed her and even threatened to kill her when she spurned his advances while the pair worked togetheron her film Frida.
Hayek had asked the movie mogul for his help producing the 2002 biopic in which she starred as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Hayek first spoke out in December, when she published a harrowing op-ed in The New York Times entitled "Harvey Weinstein is my monster too", detailing the abuse she was subjected to while trying to produce the biopic.
After Weinstein, at the peak of his producing power, said yes to the passion project of Hayek - then a relative unknown - she said: "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.
After repeatedly turning him down she said he flew into a terrifying fury, telling her on one occasion: "I will kill you, don't think I can't."
During a recording with talk show host Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday, Hayek opened up about her months-long struggle to write the op-ed .
"[The Times] contacted me to be a part of the first story and already by this contact, there was all this turmoil and I started crying when they asked and I ended up not doing it," she said.
Salma Hayek claimed Weinstein sexually harassed her and even threatened to kill her when she spurned his advances while the pair worked together on her film. Photo / Getty Images
She added: "I was ashamed I didn't say anything. But I felt like my pain was so small compared to all the other stories."
Detailing the abuse she allegedly suffered, she told Winfrey: "He said to [Frida director] Julie Taymor, 'I am going to break the kneecaps of that 'C-word'."
She went on: "[Weinstein] was not the first guy to do this to me. I was really smart around him. I handled it really well.
"And maybe that's why he didn't rape me."
Salma Hayek claimed at one point on set, Weinstein told the film's director, Julie Taymor, "I am going to break the kneecaps of that 'C-word'." Photo / AP
Weinstein denied Hayek's allegations in December, saying in a statement: "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.
"By Mr Weinstein's own admission, his boorish behaviour following a screening of 'Frida' was prompted by his disappointment in the cut of the movie."
More than 75 women have now come forward to accuse the film maker of sexual harassment, abuse and rape - among them Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale and Lupita Nyong'o.
