In a show of solidarity with Deadpool and Wolverine actress Blake Lively, who recently filed a sexual harassment complaint against her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, Kate Beckinsale has shared an Instagram post recalling some of her own toxic and abusive experiences.
Beckinsale - who is best-known for playing the lead role of Selene in the Underworld franchise - recounted some pretty shocking incidents involving co-stars and crew members.
Among other things, the actress says she was referred to as "that c*nt" on one set after complaining about a drunk co-star who repeatedly forgot his lines; was "felt-up" by a crew member on another project, and was deliberately hurt while shooting a stunt scene.
Though she doesn't mention the names of anyone involved or the specific projects she was working on at the time, speculation is already in full flow online.
In addition to the five Underworld movies, Beckinsale has appeared in the likes of Pearl Harbor, Van Helsing, Whiteout, The Aviator, and recent Prime Video action thriller Canary Black.
You can read through Beckinsale's post in full below.
"Everyone in EVERY industry should be taken seriously and not punished when something egregious happens to them at work -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.
I’m not trying to say “wah poor actresses we all have it so difficult”- 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, but they have it even worse because of social media and how that can be weaponised to a literally nuclear level, designed to eviscerate. 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 .
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. I don’t want anybody, male or female who has a legitimate complaint to then have that weaponised against them in any industry, anywhere, and I mention this in association with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni because our industry makes things more visible due to the press and the public getting deliberately involved and led towards an opinion they don’t realise is deliberate. 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."