Interview: Kate Beckinsale

Born and raised in England by astute acting parents and educated at the prestigious private college Godolphin and Latymer, actress Kate Beckinsale is the last person you’d think would be attracted to starring in a film franchise about a werewolf-hunting vampire, but after such a great time making the first Underworld (2003), she tells Clint Morris she just couldn’t oppose a second serving.

Kate Beckinsale doesn't

only just sizzle on screen.

Kate Beckinsale explodes in

Kate Beckinsale spent her teens reading French, Russian and German novels because of her studies, and completed A-levels in Russian, German and French, which resulted in her admission to Oxford University. She also won many literary awards – mainly for her poetry. Funny then that her favourite film role would be playing that of Selena, the vampire hunter, in a film that’s not so much about the words-on-the-page than the action-on-the-screen.

“I wasn’t really an action 'type' before I did this,” admits Beckinsale, whose other credits include Van Helsing, Pearl Harbor and The Aviator, but Selena’s “a really great [character] to be, [she’s] very cool and also has a [certain] vulnerability.”

Truth is, the film’s director had to coax her into the role. She was sent the script, but the theatre-trained actress immediately tossed it when she found out it was a werewolf movie. Weeks later, it returned – with a sketching of what her character would look like in the movie. Now, she was intrigued.

She recalls director Len Wiseman – now her husband – suggesting she “watch L.A Confidential to study Russell Crowe,” in preparation for her role, funnily enough.

It was how Crowe’s character feels about the wife beaters that have destroyed his life, that Wiseman thought would be a good reference for the actress, and anyway, “it’s hard to find really solid female action heroines,” says Beckinsale, so Crowe’s performance had to do.

Beckinsale says she may count it as her favourite film that she’s done, but she also considers the first Underworld her most challenging.

“It was one of the hardest. I do find it hard having to be such a tough warrior and a badass,” she says. “And the costume is quite tight.”

The actress, who recently had to shed the ten pounds she gained to portray the voluptuous Ava Gardner in The Aviator for this film, admits that “I don’t think ever want to approach a movie in a really different huge way from another kind of a movie. It’s all the same stuff.

“Okay, initially when I first read the script, I thought: "wow this is a really big stretch." But when you find that she’s lost people in her family, she’s coming from a place of real loss and so on - everybody has their own way of identifying with that. I found that whole back-story very interesting. I don’t feel quite as tough myself, at least not on that level, but everything that was behind the story I found really intriguing.”

Beckinsale loathed the costume first time around, with some media reports claiming she was becoming dehydrated in the slinky outfit.

“It’s not so much that the costume made me dehydrated, it’s just that it takes twenty minutes to get the corset off and undo the zipper and take…I don’t want to give everyone a visual,” she laughs. “When you’re shooting obviously they don’t want to give you a half-hour break so you try not to drink too much water and need to bother anybody.”

Sadly, there weren't any improvements on the costume for the sequel, she says. “We had some problems in the beginning. Wherever they found the stretchy rubber stuff the first time has gone bust or disappeared or something, so we had problems with it ripping in strategic places, every time I moved my leg or lifted my arm up there’d be a giant gapping hole!”

The extra money that could have been spent on a more comfortable, sturdy outfit, was instead spent on beefing up the film’s fight sequences. “We had a lot more money in the budget to do more fight sequences. So we all got to beat each other up a lot more than we did the first time,” she laughs.

In order to look the part of Selena, Beckinsale had to do something she had never done much of – exercise. For days on end she hit the gym – running, doing martial arts, weights and boxing. She also had to dis-learn what she had learnt as a dancer, so she’d look more like an action hero, not a ballet dancer when she was doing flips or kicks. In addition, she had to learn how to do wirework – something she was rather nervous about.

The pretty actress was aided all-the-way by stunt coordinators Brad Martin and Scott McElroy, whom she credits with helping her overcome her fear, and now, she’s so confident that she’s ready to go again.Underworld 3, anybody?