Kate Beckinsale doesn’t want future generations of actresses to experience the same distressing circumstances that she has. Recent news of Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, which alleges sexual harassment, inspired the actress to share details of a time when her own concerns and complaints on set were not treated with the severity they deserved. In particular, she recalled being “forced by a publicist” to complete a photoshoot one day after having a miscarriage.
“I said, ‘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 photo shoot. I’m bleeding out a miscarriage,’” Beckinsale recalled in an Instagram video. “She was like, ‘You’ll have to, or you’ll be sued.’”
The story was one bullet point in an extensive list of experiences that the actress mentioned. She recalled working on sets where her male co-star often showed up drunk, delaying production for hours at a time and preventing her from spending time with her daughter. For two separate films, she underwent dieting that caused her to lose her period. On another two, she was physically harmed during fight sequences. Beckinsale also remembered being referred to as “that bitch” and “that cunt” both to her face and behind her back by people she worked with. She notes that she has “about 47 million” similar stories.
“Everyone in EVERY industry should be taken seriously and not punished when something egregious happens to them at work,” Beckinsale captioned the video. “And the difference, I suppose, in our industry is that it becomes something that is played out in the public sphere, and that can be very very hard to take, and because it is so public and so globally public, and very quickly becomes clickbait, it can also destroy someone’s livelihood, mental health and reputation and that can be very difficult to recover from.”
Beckinsale noted early in the video that she has never met Lively and Baldoni, but emphasized her statements by pointing to alleged evidence that has surfaced in recently-filed legal documents. “And it is very, very, very easy to foment hatred against actresses, as was seen in the transcripts of conversations full of repulsively between the publicists and crisis team involved in this case,” she wrote. “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 (mostly with at least 100 witnesses) to have to be ‘one of the boys’ and take it on the chin or face retribution for having been abused in the first place.”
The actress’ video referenced her experience being sexually harassed by a crew member when she was 18 years old and the threats of blacklisting that she faced from Harvey Weinstein. Time and time again, Beckinsale said, she was “gaslit and made to feel like I was a problem” whenever she spoke out about concerning conditions.
“I’m grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting that this is not an archaic problem that no one’s facing — this is continuing,” she said. “And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you. And I’m sure that’s the case in other industries as well, and it’s just got to stop.”
Since Lively filed her suit against Baldoni, which also alleges that he orchestrated a smear campaign against her during the promo run for It Ends With Us, actresses including Jenny Slate, America Ferrera, Alexis Bledal, Amber Heard, and more have shown support for her.
“I’m not trying to say ‘wah poor actresses we all have it so difficult,’” Beckinsale said. “But I think this is a problem that affects every industry, it’s just that it’s a little bit more visible in ours — and I don’t want our younger generation of actresses to be facing all the same things as we all do and did.”
