The 'Genius' actor thinks he's always been proper with his co-stars and with people on sets, adding that he's upset that his friend Salma Hayek became one of Weinstein's victims.
- Apr 25, 2018
AceShowbiz - Antonio Banderas has been forced to check his past behavior as a guy in Hollywood after last year's Harvey Weinstein misconduct scandal. The movie mogul's reputation took a hammering when multiple A-listers detailed seedy encounters with the producer following the publication of exposes in The New York Times and The New Yorker.
The articles sparked the #MeToo and Time's Up anti-harassment movements, and Banderas tells Entertainment Tonight the whole drama made him sit and think of the moments he might not have been a great guy on a movie set.
"It's on everybody's mind," he says. "I think I've always been proper with my fellow actors and with people on sets. I think men in this profession became very reflective about their behavior - and that is a good thing."
But he was heartbroken when his friend Salma Hayek became one of the women who detailed stories about working with Weinstein, because he had no clue what she was going through when they were making "Frida".
In an essay, published in The New York Times, his co-star claimed Weinstein threatened to destroy her Frida Kahlo biopic after she turned down his advances, and then allegedly bullied her into stripping off for a lesbian love scene.
"It was important to reach out to her because she's my dear friend," Banderas says. "We are very good friends, and I didn't know. I wanted to know. That's why I immediately called her and said, 'Salma, why didn't you tell me?' "
"She almost got into tears (sic) and she said, 'Because I wanted to protect you guys. I didn't want to put you in that position of having to confront a guy who was so powerful. That's the reason. I didn't want to damage my friends.' "
