Salma Hayek has become the latest actress to come forward with shocking claims about disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The award-winning actress says the former producer was a "monster" who forced her into shooting a nude sex scene for the Oscar-winning film Frida after threatening to shut down production.
In a harrowing first-person piece for The New York Times, Hayek also alleges Weinstein at one point threatened to kill her.
"I was so excited to work with him," she wrote. "In my naivete, I thought my dream had come true. He had validated the last 14 years of my life. He had taken a chance on me - a nobody. He had said yes.
"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."
Hayek wrote that with every refusal - whether it be to oral sex or a massage - Weinstein flew into a "Machiavellian rage".
"The range of his persuasion tactics went from sweet-talking me to that one time when, in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, 'I will kill you, don't think I can't.' In his eyes, I was not an artist. I wasn't even a person. I was a thing: not a nobody, but a body."
After forcing Hayek to rewrite Frida's entire script and raise $US10 million to finance the film, Weinstein reportedly showed up to set one day during the middle of production to say he was shutting down the movie because there wasn't enough sex appeal.
"He offered me one option to continue," the actress wrote. "He would let me finish the film if I agreed to do a sex scene with another woman. And he demanded full-frontal nudity.
"I had to say yes. By now so many years of my life had gone into this film. We were about five weeks into shooting, and I had convinced so many talented people to participate. How could I let their magnificent work go to waste?"
The actress described suffering a "nervous breakdown" on set on the day of the shoot and had to take a tranquiliser to get through the scene.
"My body began to shake uncontrollably, my breath was short and I began to cry and cry, unable to stop, as if I were throwing up tears," Hayek wrote.
"Since those around me had no knowledge of my history of Harvey, they were very surprised by my struggle that morning. It was not because I would be naked with another woman. It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein."
Frida went on to win two Oscars, one for best makeup and another for best original score. But Hayek warned that until there is true equality in the entertainment industry, sexual predators will continue to take advantage of young actresses.
"I am grateful for everyone who is listening to our experiences. I hope that adding my voice to the chorus of those who are finally speaking out will shed light on why it is so difficult, and why so many of us have waited so long.
"Men sexually harassed because they could. Women are talking today because, in this new era, we finally can."
