Kate Beckinsale Career Retrospective | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

hi everybody my name is Dave Karger I'm a correspondent at Access Hollywood and IMDB very happy to be here tonight eight years ago I was set up on a work date with Kate Beckinsale her people wanted me to meet her we had never met I wasn't sure what to expect we had lunch at the Mercer Hotel in New York and within five minutes I could tell she was warm she was witty and she was whipped smart I've gotten a chance to run into her over the last eight years from time to time but I've actually never interviewed her before so I'm very excited to be here and now that you've just seen what I think is one of her best performances ever in love and friendship and I think you agree I am very happy to introduce Kate Beckinsale welcome I'd totally forgotten you were forced to meet me it was it was a pleasure but I retain okay good I was doing some reading up on you and was intrigued to learn that you are the daughter of not one but two actors yeah what do you think that plays into with the fact that we're sitting here today talking about an acting career I think it's a my stepfather also as a director and then my daughter's dad is an actor and my daughter is just announced she's going to be an actress it we're very boring and I thought it was outgoing boring and we and we stay within the expected field so one of the questions that we got from the audience which leads perfectly here from from Danna Jones raise your hand Anna hi Danna right in the front who or what event inspired you to be an actress was it one of your family members I don't know it's really weird when your parents are actors because before you really got out of diapers and negotiated flushing that blue people are asking you are you going to be an activate your parents and so that is never really it's not your original idea I think my daughter's dad is an actor Michael Sheen and I think him deciding to be an actor was this kind of very independent rather radical move that he you know landed on his family and the woman OH whereas my family kind of went oh you know oh really he'll dear you know I think I think it comes up as a thing when you're 2 or 3 people are you going to be excited or mom and dad and you go no doing anything like them and then I don't know I really like doing plays at school and expect it's a very intoxicating life to be a witness to I think you know it's a creative life if that appeals to you it's going to appeal to you we're going to do a little bit of a walk down memory lane I have 12 or 13 of your most notable projects that I want to quiz you about and see what kind of comes to mind I want to start off going to PTSD I did going to be a breeze I want to start off with much ado about nothing no good on that okay is that all right you remember that one yeah and when you got that part you were an Oxford student yes and I can only imagine what was going through your mind when you're stepping on to the set and it's Kenneth Branagh Denzel Washington Emma Thompson Michael Keaton whom Keanu Reeves Robert Sean Leonard and introducing I know Kate Beckinsale eyes they say my brows somehow okay yeah it was funny actually because I suppose what was a 18 I think and you know you've got that very particular of course amazing shit's going to happen to me when you're 18 feeling which then really goes away I just sharp step off um for that so I did a nun and that actually were a lot of very familiar British accent it was like they had to playing my father and it was richard briers who who had been sort of a family friend for a long time and and and imelda staunton who we knew and so it was a weird mix of like people who were kind of friends of my parents and had been sort of around growing up and then you know Denzel Washington and the amazing thing about that movie was I'm being cast in it at all and to Ken wanted it to feel like a theatre company and so we were shooting in Tuscany and there's not kind of great big fancy hotels that can house you know that have penthouses for fancy actors being fancy and all that [ __ ] that people have and so the decision was made that everyone would be in villas and you would have roommates and so I turned up and my roommates this is one of the best things has ever happened by the way my roommates were filler de lor who's Emma Thompson's mother who if you don't know who she is get on it because she's [ __ ] amazing imelda staunton another one off Robert Sean Leonard who was very prone at the time to James Taylor songs and you know 7:00 at night in the year outside and Keanu Reeves who was quite bonkers at the time but also really fascinating so we all we all lived in this house together I was on the bottom floor and it went you know robert phil is over and then Keanu was with the bats at the top and and who they would they would be carpooling and what was still don't know how to drive so I was never in charge of that but you know one day Keanu would be driving everyone the next day every filler doughnut who'd be making the pester in the evening and I thought that's what films were like and I didn't even know what an assistant was or that anyone would have one and there wasn't any one extraneous there it was just that so you know everyone had plastic chairs to sit on that didn't have their name on there wasn't a trailer there wasn't at lunchtime all the girls including Emma and fell out everybody we all had one big communal room where we'd all sort of try and have naps everybody would suddenly get into their bras and pull us the mo would get up and write [ __ ] Sense and Sensibility remember the rest of us are kind of going to have got to get a corset on they're just eating a huge water plastic she's busy like water fine most amazing script ever and it was very much like doesn't say it was this incredible kind of community and it was a play and so we did the rehearsals like a play we ran it like a play I'm sorry to bang on but so much interesting [ __ ] haven't done there's a great that Michael Keaton couldn't be there for the rehearsal period so Ken read Michael Keaton's part and Ken is a brilliant mimic so Ken did like basically Michael Keaton Batman voice which was it was super funny and being amazingly bang on and so we had this whole regio but then Michael Keaton turned up and he wasn't playing it at all like Michael Keaton he was this like completely bonkers character totally fully formed totally conceived character and what was so wonderful about canvas cam was just immediately delighted even though he'd been social what he was getting that he'd actually done the impression of it and it was completely left field and it was just wonderful to see a director go yeah okay wasn't it yet absolute and then the movie finishes and you're now you're let's say you're 19 and it goes to can for your first movie that must have been mine but here's what is what you probably can't realize is that this was pre cellphone pre-internet pre in England we were really a medieval situation in terms of like hair makeup publicist so that nobody said anything to me ever about any of those things so you're going to can nobody said you can take your mum with you or some other person so I turn up I bought myself quite an expensive pair of trousers I mean literally so I tear w-what was an expensive pair of trousers wouldn't really have anything to go with so in the airport there's this place called the sock shop that sells like socks and things and also like at the time you were wearing like a body you know that has those poppers under here or whatever and I thought all that sort of semi matches the trousers I can probably wear that for the premiere buy this sock shop thing anyway none of my luggage arrived so I couldn't get ready at all I had no makeup or anything and it didn't even know you could have a makeup artist I mean this is how about what goes out back cause it was and so finally at the 11th parrot arrived and that had very nice office from Keanu and Robert Ron listen you know you can wear one away suits you can be at Annie Hall we could have probably for like what some very expensive trousers comfy I really was method and so finally they arrived and I got ready really really quickly but I hadn't realized that I'm quite small but you can't buy a body in an extra small if you're five four eight it doesn't mean small it means small so got on the first step and those proper things were pop pop pop like that all my whole experience of the first ever experience of my movie and competition in can I just felt my gusset snap and had to go Keanu kyani kyani can you hold the thing at the back you are not all my pictures of that oh no when something really great happens to me something humbling happens within maybe two or three minutes and that was a good example balance yeah so soon after that so you're gonna do just fine with this chat I can tell so within a few years after that you did call comfort farm and I was here recently with Ian McKellen and we have blast talking about that when it meets you guys and Eileen Atkins directed by John Schlesinger Stephen Fry I proposed to him so many times on that movie he said he's only you don't accepted in two proposals me and Lynn Redgrave hey so your character flora you were this kind of London socialite who goes to move it with her country relatives and my understanding is that you fought hard for that yes how did you do it well I was I was again I was in the sweet spot of you know that cut it's not really narcissism and egomania when you're a teenager it's just past you haven't knitted a frontal lobe together so it's not actually who you are but in that thing I'm going now I must have this this is me like that date and I and I'd had two or three auditions I think and got lots of feedback of you're definitely the favorite and you know they love you and so it sort of mentally decided I was doing it and I really did feel super connected to this part and then all of a sudden they kind of crushingly said actually no we think you're too young and moved on and I was bereft and I just recently either was I think I was still at Oxford or or was still or had just finished and so my response was to go walk John Schlesinger incredibly talented and you know experienced director you're wrong I must write a PhD level essay citing all the reasons that you're wrong with actually bits from the book proving it it literally I was still in college student I was over his long letter and then I found out where he lived like a stalker and went to his house and he had a brilliant front door that had a bit of little bit of a space under it and such luck and I just like pokes it under and he has the most brilliant sense of human was the most wonderful person and we became friends forever and he loved that and then cost me immediately from that you can't do that every time because then you're just that person and so that was a TV film in the UK but when it was released in the US as a theatrical release if you go back and watch the trailer it says you know Eileen Atkins Stephen Fry Ian McKellen and introducing Kate Beckinsale for the second time because I had shorter head I didn't know it was me okay there you go one of my favorite movies that you've ever done I'm just so obsessed is the last days of disco and we're gonna come full circle on that in a bit because it's whit stillman who also directed the movie you just saw love and friendship and my is am i right than guessing that that would have been your first attempt at an American role yeah and how did you feel about that what really interesting story ready okay so here's think I didn't go to drama school so I didn't I always had that slight feeling of light everyone's been told something important that I have been studying Russian and French at Oxford and have missed and when I started working I could work write one movie a year because in the summer so I really had that feeling about I need to do an apprenticeship I really need to do as many different kinds of things as possible and basically my criteria was something really scares the [ __ ] out of me I should probably be doing it right so I had been workshopping a play with Patrick Marber and Markstrom and Steve and Elaine and was having the most amazing few weeks where you know as an actor it's such a complete treat to work with kind of a modern playwright and actually we have influence on the character that you're you know workshopping and all of that and was having such a brilliant time and then was offered that play the same day as I was offered last days of disco and the play was closer and it was the you know first I would ever been formed in London national sure yeah so I worked on that character pre it actually bigger play and so very much about like I want to do that but then sat there and went okay what scares me more being in America scares me more and being an American scares me more than ever done it so that was a really big dilemma they were both such wonderful jobs and and and I picked the the scarier one well Magda where's Magda hi Magda wants to know what it was like auditioning for last Days of Disco um where do I don't remember that much about it I think they and also I found out so much new stuff since doing a press tour with whit who is quite a closed book but after 20 years will tell you almost anything as long as it's at a Q&A in front of little people so I found out loads of waiting so he says this is the latest I can't proced he said he's sort of set up but kind of he knew he'd written the part for me but let's set up a sort of fakie casting situation in London maybe so that I didn't get really high on myself I don't know okay and which I wouldn't have because I was in the age of self-loathing and all that that's my perfect no longer a teenager so there you go yeah that's the next year okay okay so I don't remember the Stute so much about that but then there was a kind of you have to come out to New York for a test and I was just super aware that this was a media I had no experience of and I I've been to America once when I was nine and I've been in Disneyland and I was like wow they have really long queues in America really big sandwiches and that was it all I knew really about America so it felt like oh god now which is really expert performance you have to remember before the internet we were medieval II challenged by so many things and so so I came out and it was like oh my god this is not only you know very particular stretch of people it's whit's actual life you know so no pressure that her was there a specific person whose voice or whose accent you listen to or studied not really but hit a chris argument and and wit and actually Chloe even they were very much in the right zone so I was that kind of creeper following them around and I don't think I had a voice coach or anything okay we didn't care in those days crazy of the next year you did brokedown Palace which I remember see I remember vividly seeing that movie and being freaked the eff out that I mean all the times know but I don't know but just the thought of that happening it happened to someone completely innocent and that movie just took you there in such an amazing way and the relationship yours and Claire Danes as characters relationship was quite intense yeah what was the relationship like with you guys it was amazing I mean it was um I was a little bit older than her she was I think she was 18 and I must have been 22 or so so that's a lot older at that age I was almost like I sort of you know wet-nurse from and anyway so we went out there and you know we'd had a lot of warnings of like you know there was quite a sensitive time and you couldn't really walk around on your own says quite a kidnapping going on so of course you we were like well but the people were so amazing is so lovely and we were filming in a mental hospital that was actually still sort of semi being used so it was it cut fairly hair-raising experience and you know it was her first movie that she didn't have a chaperone on so I think it was a really significant one for her and and you know we were to two little pointy face girls out in Manila it was lovely I really loved working with her she's a really good actor that we would enjoyed acting with each other and wrote the next question is from Jessica Bryden raise your hand Jessica she's all the way in the back she's she's shy she's all the way in the background and her question is about the next movie I want to talk about Pearl Harbor but when you research for Pearl Harbor did you research the time what happened oh did you research the time period did you use a coach for that a voice coach or a body building kit an acting coach do you mean faith I did I was honored quite severe workout regimen involving one of Arnold Schwarzenegger old workout partners which did battle me at first I wasn't sure how that fit in with the 1940's nurse thing anyway game on when in there got some child soldier abs for free and then voice coach I'm not great at having one like hovering about by the camera I studied Russian and French when I was at Oxford I've done a lot of like I say German I've said a lot of languages so accidents for me at something that I'm really terrible at singing I really wish I was good at it but I think musical ear wise I'm okay on accents and so I usually have like one day where I kind of go through the script with a coach and make little notes and then I don't like to have somebody really on the set and I didn't have an acting I didn't know what an acting coach was when I went to Pearl Harbor and never heard of one did the experience of doing that film feel at all different from anything you've done before given that it was such a huge effort exactly like a muchness yeah right yeah no it did feel really different I also it was it was only the second movie I'd done since having a baby and it was quite a jolting one to be cutting a baby around on but yeah four units at a time planes going into trees and that movie was six months long it's quite a long movie but it was amazing and it was you know I I couldn't quite believe I was there and I remember Ben Oh Ben Affleck was incredibly helpful on that because he every time you said went I hope don't understand what's happening they put me on a funny guys and they've painted me really quite a dark brown I don't get it what's going on he go oh don't worry then Armageddon they removed teeth and you go okay but that's obviously what happens so he didn't take that personally I didn't actually feel it was something to do with being a woman and being you know it was just this is the Machine of this and you know what was great was that everything had happened to Ben already and he was pretty pretty supportive and vocal about letting you know that's good to have someone to walk you through it I want to talk about serendipity I remember so vividly being at the Toronto Film Festival in the middle of September 2001 yeah I arrived on September 10th and the 11th happens we all didn't know what was going going on does the festival continue do we not do we go home we can't get home and on September 13th 2001 I went to the premiere it was horrible it was so over and it's really sad because obviously I mean John and I weren't comfortable at all about like really flying into New York on September the 13th and going down the red carpet seems so not the thing to be doing and yet you also don't want you also want to be going no [ __ ] life goes on and but it's a weird feeling when it's you you know it was just a really weird feeling and it was especially as well because they'd had to erase the Twin Towers from the movie and I think we were the first movie that they did that on and it was just a very weird period of time also it was a period time when nobody was really wanting to go to the movie theater because everyone was very very panicked that something's gonna happen in a movie in public places anywhere so the movie didn't you know didn't really do I think box office that great I think because it was just released at a time when nobody was thinking about anything except watching the news and panicky but it has had this kind of magical life since and what's funny is I've done all these you know what I think a kind of boys movies but every time a man comes up to me says what can I just say my favorite maybe it's every single time serendipity every single time I think it's quite cheering yeah great big Betty men come up they've got good taste how about Laurel Canyon from 2002 Lisa Cholodenko who I think is such an amazing filmmaker for you that was a reunion of sorts with Christian Bale because the two of you had done one of the worst movies of all time you notice I skipped that one oh my god what was that calm it was called Prince of Jutland it was it was the guy who directed Babette's feast directed the original story of Hamlet with Christian me Helen Mirren Gabriel Byrne Ryan globe Brian Blessed an amazing cast the worst movie ever seen I was actually living in Paris it it was so bad I was living in Paris at the time and someone came up to me in the streets because it came out only in France and said oh my god I loved your movie and I thought oh it's that French thing where they're being mean you know he said I've just I've never ever seen Hamlet work as a comedy was it meant to be accommodation okay so yeah so it was nice for us to be on a movie that was a little bit less visible but Laurel Canyon was wonderful oh Henry was all those ones I think it was a five or six weeks shoot and it felt like it finished too soon and I cried at the end it really didn't want to stop working on that movie does that happen a lot where you cry at the end of a set okay so after that is must have been one of the most eventful movies that you've ever made which is underworld yeah and that's what it left among I mean yeah I mean so much happened in with your life with that one movie you you were in it with your boyfriend the time Michael Sheen who you mentioned you ended up marrying the director Len Wiseman the telenovelas it is and you ended up making five on dole slow for sorry for underworld that's right that's right but everyone still who'd it was me it was that a daunting idea because youth I've read that you said you're not a very athletic or coordination round and by the time no I think I had moved twice in my life the Florida and had mainly been reading and so yeah I think the thing was as well is that that whole kind of apprenticeship idea I'd had of I want to do the thing that scares me the most obviously the person he bunked off PE literally every time then gets offered to this action movie and I was also quite dumb on some things I thought I had I thought you had to become literally Olympic level gymnast and that I thought everyone did every single stuff I mean they do make you do quite a lot but you know if there's a gymnastic scene they tend to get some money anyway they sent me that and I thought it was a mistake at first and then they have suddenly found I was doing it and it was so terrifying and actually it was great because you know I I would like he said I keep I don't have a chip on my shoulder about not having gone to drama school but it does appear to have come up a couple of times just because it's relevant but I didn't do that thing where I'm like oh you know I'm a tree monkey and I'm you know I didn't do that thing I was quite intellectually sort of based so suddenly having to go through this training physical training and also learn how to be fighting and I'm from England and I'm a girl and make those kind of noises that of how I'm very inhibited about and embarrassed about just as an actor it was really good for me not for underworld any but to kind of go through this thing that was terribly embarrassing and also not certain of a you know not a certain outcome because I could have just looked like a [ __ ] and and I think I had enough good people that would helping that I didn't ultimately but it did feel like I felt very very secure and grounded in the work that I had done and the person that I was and the fact that that was not my sensibility and you know what a huge stretch it was and I didn't know if that read as much as I thought it would read just because those trousers are distracting and people tend to think they're you you know they mean either after you done three or four of them I think it makes it look a bit like that's like your thing if someone had said to you on the first day of the first underworld movie you're going to make four of these eventually what would you have said I would have absolutely roared laughing no absolutely not I every day of that movie because it was also for that type of movie I think it was 20 million dollar budget and it looked a lot more than that but what it meant was you know I'd have to come into a subway and shoot up a subway but we only had one go because we couldn't before so the pressure for someone who's not naturally good at that stuff and does tend to panic if anything's thrown at them was quite high so I kept most of it think yeah I'm going to be fired I'm good if I had I'd better marry the director I just said that to be funny I wasn't at all thinking behind it whose idea was it that your daughter Lily would play the younger version of your character in underworld evolution did she say I want to do it or did someone like a producer come to you and say here's what I think it was just one of those things that you know she was there and it was so obvious I mean weak she looked so like me it was you know it was a good one and and she was it was funny there she was at it she just started first grade and then punchy at that age you know they they kind of stand up for their rights a bit and so it was a bit nerve-wracking especially because you know Len was not a kind of disciplinarian type so we were worried that she'd get on set and he said can you come over here and she just go no quite concerned but she was great I love it here's a related question from Jeff Bosley where's Jeff hi how are you you're in the dark so it's hard for me to see but now I see you Jeff wants to know this is a great question with the latest underworld movie releasing soon how do you find a way to keep the character fresh for you and for the audience all the characters going through some troubles in this movie and a new wig helps a lot keep fresh well that's the thing you know that's that's the sort of problem isn't it because I ever say everyone goes all let's do another one you go I don't really want to do another one the same because that feels like I don't know I'm not really interesting and then they go off for two years and to come back with something that you say no I don't like it and then they go for another two years and come back and go what about listen you go actually yeah that's there seems there's stuff in there so and we had a female director this time which I thought was kind of cool and a forester which you know I haven't seen the movie it could be dreadful I have no idea maybe it's amazing I've no idea but it's quite fun to have a female director directing the female lead for Angela it's kind of absolutely the next movie I want to talk about is one that I've never seen its tiptoes I guess okay have you guys have you all heard of this movie tiptoes here's the thing it's super fun to hear about it I don't necessarily think you should spend a whole hour but watch the trailer what's the trailer and then if you don't know this movie it's a movie where Kate and Matthew McConaughey are about to get married yes and you go to meet your husband's family and you realize that his twin brother is actually a little person yeah and his entire family played by Gary Oldman and they CGI him to be that tall sorry excuse me very little budget right there was a CGI there was shoes on the knees right couch with a hole in it and his legs it was super low budget guys anyone in this room and anyone watching this right now just pause YouTube and go and search tiptoes trailer because the trailer is outrageous it's bad because it makes it feel it makes it seem like it's an English Patient right yes like Gary Oldman in the role of a lifetime you know so the voice-over is a little much he's not kidding you must you have it's really very well okay so I need to know more about the experience yeah someone calls up here's Kate my people Hannah hey Gary Oldman's playing a little person and everyone else in the movie is a little person and the director directed free way you go okay I want to have that experience whatever the movie is you know I mean I just want to have I want to have gone through that whole spirit it was odd that my daughter was 2 and a half and it was weird trying to explain to her why people of her height had beards and she got a bit alarmed it's a your babies are quite embarrassing about things like that and you know that there was a lot of that I literally I'm her dad also did van housing that I and there was a lot of doubles on that who were little people I became someone who knew every little person la was literally like no fiving like anytime I was like in Barnes & Noble I knew then you knew more Wow do virtually nice punch actually but yeah it was a very very strange strange movie yeah yeah and Gary who seems to hurt up until that point had done a lot of prosthetics and a lot of very uncomfortable costumes and things like that and was like that guy like oh you know you must love prosthetics you've done it he's like now [ __ ] hate prosthetics hey I can't believe it use him every day really grumpy he had to have a hump that he had like a funny bit stuck to his head and his shoes on his knees and it was just really funny like you knows like why did you say do you hate this so much but I loved him so much and I bought him a I went to a costume store and I bought him a really big fat lady stripper costume you know that's padded with the tassels and things and I put it in his trailer and said just for a change and here's how much of one needs to love Gary Oldman as he drove home in it he is a really great guy I love that guy okay so next I want to ask you about the Aviator okay we're of course you played Ava Gardner for Martin Scorsese opposite Leonardo DiCaprio which must have been a fascinating experience all around just to prepare for it and to actually do it what do you remember about that I really loved Marty and I really loved Leah and they went to me he wants me to gain 40 pounds and so I quite enjoyed the gaining of them then sort of carting them around in my actual life so I just got into kind of a sexy new relationship as well and so we couldn't get my trousers on and things so that was I remember feeling a struggle but you know artistic one I you know I beefed up and would you eat didn't he I think I went one for kind of chocolate and and french fries what would I mean everybody does that I would do doughnuts so nuts Bachelor I think I didn't know didn't know what that was before 80s so it was it was absolutely amazing and it was it was a just he's he's so interesting I think you have in your mind I Oh what would it be like to work with Scorsese his movies are so distinctive and he's so totally on top of everything and he must be micromanaging every single moment and he absolutely isn't at all and that was really surprising to me how much he wants the actors to just sort of play you know he I think he takes a lot of time over casting and then likes to see all the bits come together and get such palpable joy from actors it was having loved it it's also up there as far as your best on-screen costumes the gown I mean in the jewelry and everything was just so fabulous did you enjoy that yeah I mean it's always a little bit you know you're going to be unfavorably compared to Ava Gardner if you dress up with Ava Gotti was signed on for that the only mean is that's gonna happen but I bumped into Robert Evans not long ago he said you're far more attractive maybe garda and I thought you absolute dog I know you don't really love leaping is there when you and I met eight years ago it was because you had nothing but the truth coming out see I might have to lie down on the floor now when you said that that because that performance is spectacular and if those of you who didn't see it which is all of you because the movie studio went under just as the movie was cut almost everyone has actors right imagine this so you do movie actually finally a movie that you can watch without vomiting and poking yourself in the eye and you actually think already good in it and the movies really well directed and Vera Farmiga is [ __ ] brilliant in it and everyone's great at Helen alders brilliant and it's a really great movie and then you get told oh you've been nominated for a Critics Choice Award for this movie and like amazing the next day to go actually the film company's gone bankrupt and the movies not coming out ever so this was a tricky one and and and really actually really broke my heart like you know it was a small movie it wasn't you know great big-budget movie but it was one that people we had really sort of felt a lot about him it was very loosely based on Judy Miller and Judy Miller had had such a terrible time in the press and was very gun-shy about anything like that but did actually agree to me and I met with her a lot and it was just there was so much kind of good stuff you guys remember that story where the journalist kind of outed a CIA operative Valerie Plame so-and-so Cates character was based on the Judith Miller journalist role and view of our biggest role was based on the Valerie Plame and it was it was so amazing era for me was so good in the movie and they stay they ended up doing as kind of part of the her sort of research stuff they had her take a lie-detector test and she took it as her character and she passed as I carried her dearly so it's like that movie shouldn't be the movie that goes down it's a real bummer but is it available for people on yeah you could even be your online DVD yeah nothing but the truth go see it it is really a lovely movie it said it was a real shame but that kind of slowed my role for a second because I was like [ __ ] me like everything aligns up and then like this act of God happens like what's the point maybe I'll go and become like some yoga teacher so did you so did you take your killer did you take time off after that I think I did take a bit yeah I just didn't really feel like I just felt a bit like you know I'd lost my lady boner for a minute you know and I felt sad about it for a second and and I really still do I think it was a real shame for the director who had written it and like Rod Laurie God such a challenge who did The Contender do you guys see The Contender with Jeff Bridges and Joan Allen they did that and Garen Osteen untalented right anyway how about the Total Recall remake with again with Len Wiseman Yeah right and my understanding there is that you and he or maybe you and he were wanting to do other kind of sci-fi things but we're it was hard to get them going so yeah him so he kind of agreed to do Total Recall that wasn't so personally or the close [ __ ] that he had planned yes okay yeah and so was it had you guys work together a bunch since the first underworld we did the second underworld person so no and I was actually at the time doing fourth underworld and he was getting ready to do Total Recall and there was like a weird period of time because there were two female leads and you know he never said anything about anything so I thought okay cool like you know I would be very grown-up about there's a reason why I should be in your movie and you know whatever this was like kind of a weird thing to just not say so how did he then know they're gonna go over months and actually I was certain he would send me if I should even be allowed to say this but he would send me other people's audition tapes and go what do you think gee like this person this person and I'd read oh no I think she's good and I was very familiar with that whole thing and and then apparently halfway through that situation one of the studio people said sorry sorry so why can't we have your wife and then went oh my god you never said I thought you didn't like her type thing and they were like no we didn't imagine it we thought she didn't root was it weren't like that and suddenly I get this phone call saying would you be in the movie which was a super weird cuz it had been like a thing going on in my house where six months before that and so what did Len say was the reason why he didn't come out and ask you specifically to do it because I don't think he knew what the studio's into it like it was just one of those like you know it's a fairly collective decision I think on those type of movies and and it's a nice part I did really like that part so are you responsible for Jessica Biel getting her part as the other female lead because you saw her audition and said she's I wish I never brought this out okay she did a very nice addition yeah and then we have to end by talking about love and friendship because I just adore this movie I'm so glad you guys all just saw and what I love about it is that this is the rare case of a movie with dialogue that is as smart as you are I mean then to see you deliver these one-liners you know I would never talk to someone I knew it like that and all of it and all of the genius little things that you get to toss off yeah it's just such a pleasure I'm curious to know because I'm not familiar with the novella the Jane Austen novella that it's based on how much of what the audience just saw tonight is whit stillman and how much is Jane Austen as far as those priceless lines it's mostly however so when I got the script I read it and thought there's no way this is Jane Austen it's so funny and kind of naughty he's obviously written it in the style of Jane Austen but I didn't for a second think it was based on anything and and then it really was and what's amazing is that I'd say 80 90 percent 90 90 percent of my dialogue is Jane Austen straight Jane Austen which is amazing and and and he was wonderful because he was kind of let's have your notes of course I got to do my university student thing and go back to the novella girl know but there's even more amazing than she's even more horrific in this novella which was great and then we had a table read and wit dreads a table read and and rehearsal really of any kind and and so we were Tom Bennett who plays Sir James whose tiny green balls he he couldn't make it to the read-through and so we were all in Ireland and he was being Skyped in on her on a Mac laptop and that's always a bit [ __ ] for that person because you're at a remove and you're not really in the cool gang and whatever it's quite odd anyway he came in with that exact performance and smashed it and we were all kind of paying our pence because he was so funny like immediately when you pet like somebody's able to make like nice to meet you a super funny line like that's that's a one to watch in my opinion so so what happened was that I think wit also who is busy takes son of 25 years to conceive an idea come up with it but then is also very much in the moment so he's very unusual saw how great tom was and a lot of tom's stuff is wit so the his character really doesn't have that it's an epistolary novel it's all letters and idea thick james martin has written any in in the jet in the jane austen one so all of that tiny green balls ten could mark twelve c'mon was all that stuff that's all wet and in fact it was our producer who said something about the twelve commandments and where it was like sorry what in the movie that they were made what is it like to have eighteen years go by and then find yourself on a movie set with the same director and same co-star i was so moved by that I just thought who gets to do that that's so fantastic and special and and there wasn't as much disco dancing which was a relief and it was also fun for me cuz I mean we shot in Dublin which I hadn't spent a lot of time in Dublin but we were at least on my actual continent so it felt like it it felt like a really nice thing where you would I was I really had a lot of anxiety in you I haven't I I think I had kind of little panic attacks about leaving my hotel in the beginning and and then fell desperately in love with it and with you know really good golfers there and stuff and wit feels very much like he was the sort of Virgil of that for me so then when he comes back and we're all old and great it's nice to be on our you know my continent yeah people can understand what I'm actually saying this is a very simplistic question but I'm curious how much in a movie like love and friendship do you feel like you're playing for a laugh or how much are you just letting the words do the job I mean I found it so funny and so I loved her so much I loved her and it just felt that there was a kind of musicality to the lines that you just had to let happen so if that meant there was a laugh there was a laugh and if not but I did eat I think it was very important not to be arched I think she had to feel absolutely justified in you know missions and very secure in her charm and and then sort of play it like that then she you know she she I did he doesn't sort of come in with much direction if you came in and said I think her motivation here is that I think he would run briskly away he doesn't like that sort of thing very much but it just felt kind of if I were good at singing it was like singing okay okay let me end with a couple last questions from the audience this is from ty where's ty hi she wants to know do you still continue with any type of acting training or study even though you're so accomplished as an actress I do and actually I discovered very late in life how amazing a natural coach can be and more than anything I think because it's so wonderful to break down a script you know weeks and weeks before you shoot it so that you aren't ever on set which is very like this going oh there's a plot hole here that doesn't make sense you know I'd like to have I'd like to have kind of really gone through all that first and asked the director and I'm very respectful of directors obviously have generally lived with one or other whether it's my stepfather or whatever you know for a long time and so you can't really say I'm funny I was thinking it would be better we should shoot this in Grand Central Station you know but you can't do that to a director of it and so I like all that and also to have somebody that you can have really bad ideas with and I tend to not rehearse it with an acting coach I don't really say any of the lines but there's that you know a director doesn't have time for the kind of obsessive talking and pulling it apart that I think that I really like about filmmaking and acting so that's been a real treat and also to have it scheduled in like you know I used to I justify myself going I'm going to work on the script now and you know don't really have a structure that you know was 19 we don't we have a structure in oh great to write a few things down you know that's how I roll and then some other ones we do an acting coach you've got kind of three or four hours blocked and that's what you're doing and I didn't know just that that kind of discipline it I really like I like this question from Audrey Annabella hi how are you she wants to know which of all your characters was the most challenging to play a hero in much ado about nothing is one of the most difficult parts I think written for anyone ever because she has so much happened to her and she says so little and she's also not a complete drip so it's quite tricky with this sort of mute character who's going through all this amazing drama you know to convey what's happening for her through these do not not not much that she's I'm a member tommix and saying oh darling it's a pig of a part okay I found that quite reassuring actually she's wonderful and and also I think I think underworld has been very challenging for reasons that we all know now well there you go and I want to end with this this question cracks me up because two or three times in our chat you've said that you can't sing sherry says you're a great singer oh because did you sing in the movie tonight no why sherry why do you think she's a great singer where's sherry hi really sherry says she's a great singer for those who can't hear she heard hate singing Amazing Grace on YouTube that's so nice I had it that was last days of disco actually and it was the scene I was dreading this is turning to a therapy session I did some paper to ago mommy listen to this I just learned and I sing twinkle twinkle my mother would go so I always have that I was of that and I might I probably not as horrible as I think I am I'm not that great but I did have to sing amazing grace lying down in a hospital bed at the end of last days of disco and [ __ ] singing while you're laying down what you don't think is what a Slifer is basically drowning you so I didn't really die a couple of dollars so frightened but uh my god no one's ever said that to me it was worth it for that thank you so much but her question is would you consider doing a musical in my mind my mind I'm doing one right now there's nothing that I mean I have seen but credibly sensitivity music and I do use music a lot in terms of to get myself in the right emotional place and I'm somebody who can't sort of be doing many other things when I because if there's a song I like I have to stand up and dance and sing to it so I that probably good idea I don't drive I'd be in trouble but yeah I really would love that but I just have a feeling it would be upsetting for the audience I feel like whit stillman Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale need to make a musical together as a movie number three that's just me can it be can it be Hamilton's I know it was yes you're perfect for it Kate what a pleasure to talk to you beauty and thank you all for being such a great you

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 205,484

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Kate Beckinsale, LOVE & FRIENDSHIP, Much Ado About Nothing, Cold Comfort Farm, The Last Days of Disco, Pearl Harbor, Serendipity, Underworld, The Aviator, Contraband, Total Recall, Everybody’s Fine, Vacancy, Click, Brokedown Palace, Van Helsing, Absolutely Anything, Nothing But The Truth, Stonehearst Asylum, The Face of an Angel, Snow Angels, Fragments, Q&A, Interview, Career

Id: qgaQgcp4YF8

Length: 45min 8sec (2708 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 07 2016