Harvey Weinstein denies threatening Salma Hayek on Frida set

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has issued a statement from exile to respond to an essay by actor Salma Hayek in which she described him as a “monster” who subjected her to repeated sexual harassment and threatened to kill her.

A spokeswoman for the producer told the BBC that Hayek’s accusations were “not accurate”.

In an article for the New York Times, Hayek painted Weinstein as a man of extreme contradictions: “a passionate cinephile, a risk taker, a patron of talent in film, a loving father and a monster”.

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The 51-year-old actor goes on to describe how the executive made multiple advances to her on the set of Frida, a 2002 biopic of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo which was purchased by Miramax, the production company founded by Weinstein and his brother, Bob.

Hayek’s widely-acclaimed performance in the title role helped make the Mexican-born actor a Hollywood A-lister. But behind the scenes, Hayek claims, Weinstein used his position of power to try and coerce sexual favours from the then-newcomer.

She describes multiple unwanted overtures before filming began: among other things alleging that Weinstein followed her and tried to enter her hotel room, repeatedly pressured her to let him perform sex acts on her and asked to watch her shower.

“With every refusal came Harvey’s Machiavellian rage,” she writes. On one occasion, she claims Weinstein told her: “I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.”

A spokeswoman for Weinstein said: “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.”

Hayek also claims that Weinstein threatened to shut down production of the film unless Hayek performed an explicit sex scene with a character played by Ashley Judd, another of his later accusers.

“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,” she writes, adding that she had to take a tranquiliser in order to perform the scene.

The spokesperson said that the sex scene “was part of the story, as Frida Kahlo was bisexual”, NBC reports.