Salma Hayek: Weinstein only responded to sexual harassment allegations from women of color because they are ‘the easiest to get discredited’

Actress Salma Hayek said former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein only responded to sexual harassment allegations from her and actress Lupita Nyong’o because women of color are “the easiest to get discredited.”

“He only responded to two women … the women of color,” Hayek told Vanity Fair at the Cannes Film Festival this week. “It was a strategy by the lawyers because we are the easiest to get discredited.”

“It is a well-known fact that, if you are a women of color, people believe you and believe in you less,” Hayek added. “So, he went back, attacking the two women of color … if he could discredit us, he could then maybe discredit the rest … so he went to [what he thought were] the weakest links.”

Hayek wrote an essay in The New York Times in December that accused Weinstein of sexual harassment during the making of the film “Frida.”

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Her accusation came after multiple women had already stepped forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment.

Weinstein denied Hayek’s accusations soon after they were published. He later challenged allegations by Nyong’o, who said Weinstein sexually harassed her in 2011 while she was a college student.

Hayek’s comments on Sunday came one day after 82 women in the entertainment industry, including Hayek, staged a gender equality protest at Cannes.

“The good news is that there are so many,” Hayek said referring to the large number of women that came forward with allegations against Weinstein. “Because if there hadn’t been so many, probably people would have thought that we made that up.”