Hollywood predators ‘terrified and hiding’, says Hayek

EARLIER this week, she joined 82 women in a march to demand more female representation in the film industry. And actress Salma Hayek, 51, continued to show her support for the campaign as she took part in the Kering Women In Motion talk at Cannes Film Festival yesterday.

The Mexican star of From Dusk till Dawn spoke to Variety magazine about the Me Too movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal, calling the changes that have begun to take place since an ‘important step’ on the road to gender equality.

‘Personally, as a woman that has been part of this community and has had to go through the struggles that all women have had to go through, it’s an important step,’ she told the magazine.

The number of women on the march represented the number of female directors who have climbed up the famous Cannes Film Festival steps in its history.

But Hayek, right, said she still felt that there was more work to be done to tackle gender inequality. Speaking about the march, she said: ‘It looked like we were a lot, but we were such a small number.’

Last year, she spoke out about her experiences with disgraced film mogul Weinstein, claiming he had put pressure on her to have sex with him and that he even threatened to kill her.

Referring to Weinstein’s denial that the claims made by her and 10 Years a Slave’s Lupita N’yongo’s against him were accurate, she said: ‘He only responded to two women, two women of colour. It was a strategy by the lawyers, because we are the easiest to get discredited.

‘It is a well-known fact, if you are a woman of colour, people believe what you say less.’

She added: ‘The predators are hiding and terrified. You feel it. It’s a very palpable atmosphere.’ But she also said: ‘Men have the opportunity, which is so beautiful, to rethink what does it mean to be a man.’