Kate Beckinsale detailed several instances of abuse on film sets in the wake of Blake Lively’s sexual harassment complaint against her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios producers.
The “Underworld” star thanked Lively for surfacing the long-standing issue of women’s complaints not being heard on film sets and acknowledging that it is not “an archaic problem.”
“What [Lively’s complaint] has highlighted is this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful in this industry,” the actress said in an Instagram reel posted Sunday.
Beckinsale then recounted several instances of abuse and harassment that she experienced during her three decades in Hollywood and the times when even notable women told her to stay silent.
The star revealed that she was referred to as “that c–nt” on a set, over the walkie talkie and to her face because she called out that her male co-star was “drunk everyday.” The studio’s response was to give her a bike.
“He was going through something. I have sympathy for that, but I was waiting, as was the crew, for six hours a day for him to learn his lines. It means I’m not getting to see my daughter in the evenings the whole movie,” she said. “And then, of course, I was called a cunt and a bitch. During a take I was called a ‘stupid bitch.’”
Beckinsale added that in the same film the male director ran off crying after calling her a bitch, and she had to be the one to console him and “talk him off the ledge.”
She went on to detail one fight sequence where she was physically harmed by a male co-star to the point where an MRI proved her injuries.
“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,” she explained. “I was harmed, to the point where there were MRIs proving it. Actually what had happened, I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem and blamed and left out of cast dinners as soon as I mentioned there was a problem.”
The star quickly ran through a couple other examples regarding her physical appearances, which she undermined because they “happen to everyone.”
Beckinsale then recounted an experience where a publicist on her payroll forced her to do a photoshoot as she was actively “bleeding out” from a miscarriage the day prior. “You have to or you’ll be sued,” she remembered the publicist telling her.
The “Pearl Harbor” actress added that she was “felt up” by a crew member on-set when she was only 18 years old.
“I was 18 and felt up by somebody that I really trusted on a crew. I went to the lead actress, who was known for being a supporter of women, and said this is happening and was told, ‘No, it didn’t.’ I went to another actress and said I’d just been assaulted by this man and told, ‘No, you haven’t been,’” she said.
The tenured actress also remembered her run-ins with Harvey Weinstein. Beckinsale revealed that she was one of the lucky ones because nothing physical happened between them, but she remembered that after turning down a film or production deal with the producer, he “spoke to everybody in town and told them not to use her.”
“This has been going on forever. I’ve got about 47 million stories similar to this,” she added.
Beckinsale explained that many men in the entertainment industry claim to say that the climate has changed significantly, but she disagreed: “it f–cking isn’t.”
“On the whole you’re fucked. If you mention it, you’re fucked,” Beckinsale added about why it continues to be impossible for women to be heard on sets.
“It’s supposed to be, you absorb it and somehow you’re the homie. That has to stop,” she said. “I am grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting this is not an archaic problem that no one is facing. This is continuing. When it does happen a machine goes in place to absolutely destroy you.”
The actress said that she did not know Lively or Baldoni personally but felt that the issue of women not being heard, and furthermore “destroyed” for speaking up, is more topical than ever.
Lively has garnered several key supporters since her complaint, including SAG-AFTRA, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sony Pictures, Amber Heard and Colleen Hoover.
