Kate Beckinsale is an English actress best known for her role as Selene in the 2003 action hit, Underworld, and its sequels, Underworld: Evolution, Underworld: Awakening, and Underworld: Blood Wars. She also is known for her role in 2012's Total Recall. She is the only daughter of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe.
Background[]
Beckinsale began her career by appearing in Much Ado About Nothing, a 1993 romantic comedy. At the time, she was still a student at Oxford University, where she studied English, where she won writing awards in both fiction and poetry categories. However, she didn't become well known until she appeared in the 2001 films Pearl Harbor and Serendipity. Her 2003 appearance in Underworld was quickly followed by a starring role in Van Helsing. With her fame firmly established, she followed up with films such as Click, Vacancy and Whiteout.
Beckinsale's most recent work has been on Total Recall, which was directed by her husband, and The Trials of Cate McCall.
In 1995, Beckinsale met fellow actor Michael Sheen and fell in love with him. The two maintained an eight year long relationship, into which a daughter, Lily Sheen, was born. While filming Underworld, Beckinsale met and began a relationship with director Len Wiseman, which culminated in a breakup between herself and Sheen, as well as between Wiseman and his wife. In 2004, Beckinsale married Wiseman, who she later divorced in 2016.
Underworld[]
Kate Beckinsale as Selene in Underworld: Evolution.
Beckinsale initially turned down the role of Vampire heroine Selene, believing that a film about Vampires and Werewolves wasn't the type of role she was looking for. Director Len Wiseman later called and begged her to look at the script; motivating Beckinsale to begin looking through drawings Wiseman had sent her of Selene. Beckinsale was stunned to see that the drawings were clearly based on her own likeness, and accepted the part. From there, Beckinsale's character has become the center of the Underworld universe, and she has taken the lead role in four of the five films in the series.
Quotes[]
- I got [the script] with a pile of scripts and this was one the top. It said vampires and werewolves and I said, ‘Oh God, I better put this to one side.’ Then I opened it up and the director had done these amazing drawings, he’s an incredible artist. They were really not what I was expecting.[1]
- We heal like vampires do. We don’t have a whole lot about garlic and crucifixes. We don’t have any of that. It’s much more high-tech than that. The werewolves kill with ultraviolet bullets that shoot daylight into us. I can jump from this great height and land. We don’t turn into bats. None of the stuff that kind of makes me feel a bit [creepy] about doing a vampire movie is really in it, which I was kind of glad about. We shoot the werewolves with silver nitrate bullets. It’s really just having a couple of big-ass Glocks.[1]
- (About her costume) The first thing that we shot was the subway, [where] there was no air conditioning. It was boiling hot in there. The outfit was out of latex, I think – the stuff they make condoms out of. If it’s hot, it gets really hot. If it’s cold, it gets really cold. And in Budapest it goes from [blazing hot to winter] in one day. It was kind of uncomfortable. I did kind of like the way it sort of holds everything in, in a good way. It kind of pushes everything up to where it actually ought to be in life.[1]
- (About returning as Selene) It’s great. I’m fond of her. She’s cool. I like being one of the girls that gets to do these movies. There aren’t many of us.[2]
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Inside "Underworld" with Kate Beckinsale
- ↑ Underworld: Awakening interview – Kate Beckinsale, July 16, 2012. Archived at archive.org.
Videos[]
Gallery[]
| v · e |
|---|
| Actors |
| Major Actors |
| Kate Beckinsale - Scott Speedman - Shane Brolly - Bill Nighy - Sophia Myles - Michael Sheen - Kevin Grevioux |
| Other Actors |
| Zita Görög - Erwin Leder - Scott McElroy - Richard Cetrone - Mike Mukatis - Wentworth Miller - Jázmin Dammak - Todd Schneider - Dennis J. Kozeluh - Robbie Gee - Sándor Bolla - Hank Amos - Danny McBride - Ildikó Kovács - Judit Kuchta - Attila Pinke |
| Direction |
| Len Wiseman |
| Production |
| Gary Lucchesi - Robert Bernacchi - Tom Rosenberg |
| Writing |
| Danny McBride - Kevin Grevioux - Len Wiseman |
| Music |
| Paul Haslinger |
| v · e |
|---|
| Actors |
| Major Actors |
| Kate Beckinsale - Scott Speedman - Tony Curran - Derek Jacobi - Brian Steele - Shane Brolly - Steven Mackintosh |
| Other Actors and Stunts |
| Bill Nighy - Zita Görög - Michael Sheen - Christine Danielle - Kaja Gjesdal - John Mann - Andrew Kavadas - Sophia Myles - Scott McElroy - Kayla Levins - Lily Mo Sheen - Mike Mukatis - Richard Cetrone - Todd Schneider |
| Direction |
| Len Wiseman |
| Production |
| Gary Lucchesi - Len Wiseman - Danny McBride - Kevin Grevioux - Tom Rosenberg |
| Writing |
| Danny McBride - Len Wiseman |
| Music |
| Marco Beltrami |
| v · e |
|---|
| Actors |
| Major Actors |
| Michael Sheen - Rhona Mitra - Bill Nighy - Kevin Grevioux - Steven Mackintosh |
| Other Actors |
| Kate Beckinsale - Craig Parker - Elizabeth Hawthorne - David Aston - Larry Rew - Tania Nolan - Jared Turner - Edwin Wright |
| Direction |
| Patrick Tatopoulos |
| Production |
| Len Wiseman - Gary Lucchesi - Tom Rosenberg - Skip Williamson |
| Writing |
| Len Wiseman - Danny McBride |
| Music |
| Paul Haslinger |
| v · e |
|---|
| Actors |
| Major Actors |
| Kate Beckinsale - India Eisley - Theo James - Stephen Rea - Kris Holden-Ried |
| Other Actors and Stunts |
| Charles Dance - Sandrine Holt - Michael Ealy - Adam Greydon Reid - Catlin Adams - Wes Bentley - Richard Cetrone - Todd Schneider |
| Direction |
| Måns Mårlind - Björn Stein |
| Production |
| Len Wiseman - David Kern - Skip Williamson - Gary Lucchesi - Tom Rosenberg |
| Writing |
| Len Wiseman - John Hlavin |
| Music |
| Paul Haslinger |
| v · e Underworld: Blood Wars Cast and Crew
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| Actors |
| Kate Beckinsale - Theo James - Trent Garrett - Tobias Menzies - Lara Pulver - Clementine Nicholson - Charles Dance - Daisy Head - Oliver Stark - Brain Caspeople |
| Direction |
| Anna Foerster |
| Production |
| Skip Williamson - Len Wiseman - Gary Lucchesi - Tom Rosenberg - Richard Wright - David Kern |
| Writing |
| Cory Goodman |
| Music |
| Michael Wandmacher |