Salma Hayek recalls ‘traumatising’ experience working with Harvey Weinstein on Frida

‘I was very, very strong, but when I would go home, sometimes I would be depressed for weeks’

Salma Hayek has opened up about her experience working with Harvey Weinstein on the 2003 Frida Kahlo biopic Frida.

The disgraced producer, whom Hayek described as “abusive”, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual assault and rape in the third degree.

Speaking to Marc Maron on the comedian's WTF podcast, Hayek recalled her experience working with Weinstein.

“I didn’t have a relationship with Harvey Weinstein. Let me clarify that,” said Hayek. “I had a working relationship with Harvey Weinstein that was abusive in many ways... He didn’t get away with what he wanted. It was traumatising.

“I actually was very smart for the five years trying to get Frida done, how I handled it. Because I wouldn’t let him see any weakness. I was very, very strong, but afterwards when I would go home, sometimes I would be depressed for weeks.”

Hayek as Frida Kahlo in the 2002 biopic Frida (Miramax)

Hayek was nominated for an Academy Award for her lead role in the film, which she says was “made against [Weinstein's] will”.

“I was clever enough to corner him legally, to make a film that he didn’t want to make because he was not getting what he wanted out of me for doing the movie, and he still had to do it,” she said.

“He made my life miserable when we were shooting it, and I came out of it and I said, ‘I won. I beat him at his game. I’m not a victim. I healed. I’m a fighter, I’m strong.’”

However, Hayek added that when the allegations of abuse against Weinstein began emerging in 2017, she “started spiralling down again”.

She continued: “It's not just the sexual abuse. It's the mental abuse within work. He abused a lot of men too.”

Prior to his arrest and conviction, Weinstein was known as the head of Hollywood film studios Miramax and The Weinstein Company.