Antonio Banderas reached out to Salma Hayek as soon as her article accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment was published last year.
The 51-year-old actress came forward with her allegations against the disgraced producer in an article published in December last year, and her close pal Antonio – who had starred with her in several movies including ‘Desperado’ and ‘Frida’ – has now admitted he called her "immediately" to see how she was doing, and to ask why she didn’t speak up sooner.
He said: "It was important to reach out to her because she’s my dear friend. 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?’ And she almost got into tears 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.’"
The ‘Puss in Boots’ star, 57, went on to praise the influx of people coming forward with their own sexual misconduct allegations, as he believes it is a "good thing" that men in Hollywood are starting to "reflect" on their past behaviour.
Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’, he said: "It’s on everybody’s mind. 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 behaviour, and that is a good thing."
However, Antonio previously claimed he wouldn’t be judging any of the accused stars – which include Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, and James Franco – without first having "all of the data" to prove their alleged misconduct.
He said: "These cases belong to a pattern of behaviour which has been carried out for millennia. But I wouldn’t like to be very specific about specific people. I think that’s unfair because I don’t have all the data … People saying, ‘This person is guilty of this,’ is against my principles."
Antonio Banderas: I called Salma Hayek straight after Weinstein story broke
