Tag: Actress

Blake Lively is far from the only actress who’s ever had uncomfortable experiences on a film set. In the wake of the It Ends With Us star’s legal complaint against her costar and director Justin Baldoni for alleged mistreatment during production of the Colleen Hoover adaptation, Kate Beckinsale took to Instagram to share her own experiences with being harassed for complaining about poor working conditions on film sets.

Beckinsale stressed that she did not know Lively or Baldoni personally, and was not privy to confidential information about the workings of the It Ends With Us set. But Lively’s complaint (which alleges, among other things, that Baldoni sexually harassed her on set and subsequently organized a media smear campaign against her) reminded her of a pattern of misogyny she’s witnessed firsthand.

“What this has highlighted is this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, or whatever else in this industry,” Beckinsale said in an Instagram Reel. “I’ve been on a film, for example, 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 costar is drunk every day and 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.”

Beckinsale continued, “the studio’s response was to give me a bike so that I could ride around the studio lot while I was waiting. And then, of course, I was called a c— and a b—-.”

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Beckinsale didn’t identify any of these movies or directors she referenced by name (other than infamous convicted predator Harvey Weinstein), but she had several stories that apparently came from multiple different projects.

“I was put on such a strict exercise program on one movie that I lost my periods altogether,” Beckinsale said. “That’s happened twice.”

Beckinsale has performed in a variety of different genres since making her film debut in Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, but is perhaps best known for action films like Van Helsing and the Underworld franchise. She also played Hollywood legend Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and collaborated with director Whit Stillman on The Last Days of Disco and his 2016 Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship.

In the wake of the MeToo movement that began with the New York Times‘ Weinstein exposé in 2017, many have said that Hollywood has gotten better in its treatment of women. But over the course of Beckinsale’s 30-year career, she says things haven’t changed as much as we might like to think.

“What’s really depressing is I see a lot of men going around saying, ‘oh it was very different awhile ago. The climate’s so different and it’s so much better.’ It f—ing isn’t!” Beckinsale said. “If you’re a woman and you have a legitimate complaint…like ‘somebody’s touching my boobs’ or ‘calling me a c—,’ you’re f—-d. If you mention it, you’re f—-d. It’s supposed to be that you absorb it and then you’re the homie. That has to stop. And I’m grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting the fact that this is not an archaic problem…this is continuing. And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you.”

Watch Beckinsale’s full Reel below.