SALMA HAYEK PINAULT
Women’s rights activist, actor and producer
When Salma Hayek Pinault decided to write about her experience of working with the
disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, her friends, family and agents hoped it
would be quietly cathartic. They could not have predicted that the resulting essay,
Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too, published in The New York Times in December
2017, would go on to win the 52-year-old actress a share of a Pulitzer Prize. Hayek
Pinault was as floored as anyone. “I was prepared for a terrible reaction,” she
explains, with a shrug that conveys the nerve with which she quit her native Mexico,
where she was a telenovela star, to seek her fortune in Hollywood in 1991. But,
something even more unexpected happened. “People would call and say, ‘Can we have
the name of the writer who wrote that for her?’” she recalls, exasperated. “I wrote it
myself! Every single word!” At first, she was angry: “I have just written an article
about undermining, and they are all undermining me.” Then, realisation dawned. “I
was able to say to myself, ‘I can write,’ which is a very big deal because I am highly
dyslexic. It gave me so much confidence to write the article. And it made me feel free.” EP
Silk blouse, £1,120. Felt fedora, £605. Both Saint Laurent by
Anthony Vaccarello. Fashion editor: Grace Coddington. Hair: Didier
Malige. Make-up: Diane Kendal. Nails: Yuko Tsuchihashi09-19-WELL-ForcesForChange.indd 249 10/07/2019 16:17