KATE BECKINSALE is a kick-ass actor who has taken down the bad guys onscreen in numerous action movies.
But behind the scenes, the 51-year-old British beauty says she has been fighting against a violent and sexually abusive industry for three decades.
6
Kate Beckinsale says she has been fighting against a violent and sexually abusive film industry for three decadesCredit: Getty
6
Kate praised her Pearl Harbor co-star Ben Affleck, saying he protected herCredit: Rex
Now Kate — best known for the Underworld vampire series, Pearl Harbor and Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator — has broken Hollywood’s code of silence.
She says she was “felt up” aged 18 by a trusted crew member, was left covered in bruises by an actor who got a “thrill” out of striking her during filming, and was forced to go through with a photoshoot the day after suffering a miscarriage.
Kate, who struggled with anorexia when she was 15, also told how she was made to undertake a dangerously strict diet by image-obsessed showbusiness bosses.
Now she has decided to speak out following the explosive row between Blake Lively and It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni.
Mother-of-one Kate praised Blake, 37, for her legal action, filed in December, that alleges sexually inappropriate behaviour and bullying on the set of the new film.
There’s a certain kind of actor who gets a kind of a thrill out of sort of being able to legally harm a woman during a fight sequence
Kate
And she agrees with Blake that female stars who complain about their male colleagues end up being shunned rather than helped.
Kate says that when she raised concerns about an actor who had bruised her and ripped her clothes during a scene, the industry turned on her.
In a social media video, she claimed: “There’s a certain kind of actor who gets a kind of a thrill out of sort of being able to legally harm a woman during a fight sequence.
“I was harmed to the point where there were MRI scans proving it.
“I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem, blamed and ostracised, left out of cast dinners, not spoken to, as soon as I mentioned that there was a problem.”
Kate Beckinsale hits back at cruel trolls who slammed her Christmas tree as ‘looking like a pile of puke’
What is remarkable is that someone who has showbusiness in their blood was treated with such contempt.
Kate’s dad was Porridge star Richard Beckinsale, who died aged 31 in 1979 from a heart attack, and her mum is actress Judy Loe.
But right from the start of her career, Kate says she experienced shocking behaviour.
Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, 72, invited Kate, who was then just 17, up to his hotel room to discuss her fledgling career.
Kate has claimed that the producer — who is now serving 16 years in prison for rape and sexual assault — appeared in a bath robe and offered her alcohol.
She turned down the offer of booze and told him she had to go to school the next morning.
A year later, Kate could not escape a different predator on set.
In the video posted on Instagram this week, she said: “I was actually, at the age of 18, felt up by somebody that I really trusted on a crew.”
When she told an actress “who is known for being a supporter of women” about the sexual assault, she was told “it didn’t” happen.
Kate continued: “I went to another actress and said, crying, ‘I’ve just been assaulted by this man’ — again, ‘No, you haven’t been’.”
The industry appeared to close ranks again when Kate had to deal with an unnamed drunken co-star.
Kate, who shares daughter Lily, 25, with her actor ex Michael Sheen, claimed: “I’ve been on a film where, by the end of it, I was referred to over walkie-talkies and to my face as ‘that c**’ because I had said, ‘I’m finding it very difficult — my co-star is drunk every day.
“‘He’s obviously going through something and I have full sympathy for that, but I’m also waiting, as is the whole crew, six hours a day for him to learn his lines and it means I’m not getting to see my daughter in the evenings for the whole movie’.”
She added that the studio’s response was to give her a bike so she could ride around the studio lot while she was waiting.
Fans speculated about who the drunken co-star could be, wrongly jumping to the conclusion that it was Kate’s Pearl Harbour co-star Ben Affleck, who has admitted dealing with alcoholism over the years.
But Kate defended Ben, saying: “Ben Affleck protected me on an extremely toxic film set and could not have behaved more respectably.”
6
The Brit actress as vampire assassin Selene in UnderworldCredit: Rex
Kate has previously spoken about how she was told to lose weight by the director of the 2001 big-budget film, which made her feel “ugly”.
Michael Bay’s toxic attitude was laid bare in an interview with the New York Times in 2001 where he said he wasn’t going to cast Kate, who auditioned in leather trousers, as the “sweet” romantic lead because “it was easy to think of this woman as something of a slut”.
It was not the only time Kate was expected to meet Hollywood’s twisted beauty standards.
She says: “I was put on such a strict diet and exercise programme for a movie that I lost my period altogether — that has happened twice.”
A disregard for Kate’s mental and physical welfare has been a recurring theme.
One time she was told to go ahead with a photoshoot even though she had just endured a miscarriage.
The actress alleged: “I was forced by a publicist that I was employing to do a photoshoot the day after I had a miscarriage.”
She told her adviser: “I can’t. I’m bleeding. I don’t want to go and change my clothes in front of people I don’t know and do a photoshoot. I’m bleeding out a miscarriage.”
But the publicist reportedly told her: “You’ll have to or you’ll be sued.”
Equally disturbing are Kate’s claims about painful physical assaults during fight scenes.
The actress is experienced in throwing a fake punch or delivering a realistic drop kick, having played an assassin in five Underworld movies and starring in action movies Total Recall and Van Helsing.
But during one unidentified shoot, Kate said one actor was so rough with her that “he destroyed part of my costume and ripped my wig in half, not to say covered me in bruises, winded me and scared me half to death”.
The revelations are not the first time Kate has spoken out about bullying. ‘It has to stop’ She previously alleged that Weinstein called her a “stupid, f**ing c**” for wearing a loose- fitting white suit to the premiere of 2001’s Serendipity instead of a “tight dress”.
Many women hoped the MeToo movement, which was sparked by the sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein, would lead to improvements within the male-dominated industry.
But Kate thinks those hopes have been dashed.
She commented: “What’s really depressing is I see a lot of men going around saying, ‘Oh, it was very different a while ago, you know, the climate is so different and it’s so much better’. It f**ing isn’t.”
The MeToo debate has been reignited by Blake Lively suing Justin Baldoni.
The Gossip Girl actress, who is married to Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, claims in the legal action that she had to ask Baldoni to cease his inappropriate behaviour on the set of It Ends With Us, including showing her explicit clips.
Blake also alleges Baldoni responded by hiring a publicity team to “destroy” her reputation.
Baldoni has denied the claims.
Kate does not know Blake or Justin and said she was not speaking about their case, but rather wider issues in Hollywood.
She went on to say she has around “47million stories” of inappropriate behaviour within the business.
The actress, who was married to Underworld director Len Wiseman for five years until 2019, has now taken down her shocking video from Instagram.
She has also asked followers to stop speculating about the identities of the men who she has claimed harassed her.
But Kate has taken a crucial stand against Hollywood, insisting it needs to change.
She concluded: “If you’re a woman and you have a legitimate complaint like ‘somebody’s touching my boobs’, if you mention it, you’re f***ed.
That has to stop
6
The star in the video she posted on Instagram detailing years of mistreatmentCredit: instagram/katebeckinsale
6
Kate asked fans to stop speculating on identities and insisted Ben Affleck was not the co-star she mentionedCredit: instagram/katebeckinsale
6
The Hollywood star faced many predators on set, including Harvey WeinsteinCredit: Getty
