Kate Beckinsale, the British star of films such as Love & Friendship, Canary Black and the Underworld series, has posted a video on social media in response to Blake Lively, who is involved in a legal battle with It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni. Beckinsale says she has been “assaulted” and “felt up” on film sets, and was insulted and called “a cunt” and “a bitch” when she complained.
Beckinsale says that, while she has never met Lively or Baldoni, she has been “following as a lot of people have, the situation”, and that it highlights “this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, whatever, in this industry”.
In the video, Beckinsale recounts her own negative experiences, saying she has “47 million stories” like this. She says: “At the age of 18, [I was] felt up by somebody that I really trusted on a crew. Went to the lead actress, who’s known for being a supporter of women, and said this has happened and was told, ‘No, it didn’t.’ I went to another actress, crying, and said I’d just been assaulted by this man and again told, ‘No, you haven’t been.’”
Lively filed an 80-page legal complaint against Baldoni, alleging inappropriate behaviour during the making of It Ends With Us, as well as a smear campaign against her. Baldoni denies the claims, and says he is planning to file a counterclaim. Lively’s allegations have attracted wide support from other high profile figures in the industry including Amy Schumer, America Ferrera, Amber Heard and the It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover.
Beckinsale says she has twice been put in “unsafe situations” in movie fight scenes. “There’s a certain kind of actor who gets kind of a thrill out of legally being able to harm a woman during a fight sequence. And I was harmed, to the point where there were MRIs proving it. And actually what happened was I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem, blamed and ostracised … as soon as I mentioned there was a problem.”
Beckinsale describes the behaviour of a “drunk” male co-star whose inability to learn his lines caused extensive delays, meaning she was unable to see her young daughter during the shoot. “He’s obviously going through something, and I have full sympathy for that, but … the studio’s response was to give me a bike so I could ride around the studio lot while I was waiting. Then, of course, I was called a cunt and a bitch. At one point during a take, I was called ‘You stupid bitch.’”
Beckinsale also recalls having to deal regularly with body image issues. She had to listen to a group of people saying, in her earshot: “What the fuck are we going to do? How do we make her attractive?” She says she was “put on such a strict diet and exercise programme” that she stopped menstruating. In another instance, she was forced to take part in a photoshoot the day after a miscarriage. “I said, ‘I don’t want to … I am bleeding out a miscarriage’ and [the publicist] said, ‘You have to or you’ll be sued.’”
In a lengthy caption to her video, Beckinsale adds: “It is very, very, very easy to foment hatred against actresses, as was seen in the transcripts of conversations … between the publicists and crisis team involved in this case. Complaining about abuse should not beget more abuse, particularly at work where there should be inviolable safeguarding in place, and it should not be expected of women who have been harmed, insulted, hurt, shamed or in any other way abused.”
“There are far too many casualties of this, many of whom I know personally, and it really falls to both men and women in our industry to be part of stamping this out for good.”
