ate Beckinsale said she was once “forced by a publicist” to do a photoshoot while bleeding from a miscarriage, as she recounted some of the experiences she has endured during her years in Hollywood.
The British-born screen star shared the unsettling anecdote in a lengthy video recently posted to Instagram, as she weighed in on Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and the perception about and treatment of women who complain.
Lively and Baldoni worked together on the movie It Ends with Us. It was directed by and featured Baldoni, while Lively was both a star and producer. Rumors swirled of conflict between Lively and Baldoni during a summer press tour for the film. Confirming this, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni on December 20, accusing the filmmaker of sexual harassment and launching a publicity campaign to tarnish her reputation.
Baldoni has denied any wrongdoing, with his legal team telling Newsweek that the allegations are “categorically false.”
ate Beckinsale said she was once “forced by a publicist” to do a photoshoot while bleeding from a miscarriage, as she recounted some of the experiences she has endured during her years in Hollywood.
The British-born screen star shared the unsettling anecdote in a lengthy video recently posted to Instagram, as she weighed in on Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and the perception about and treatment of women who complain.
Lively and Baldoni worked together on the movie It Ends with Us. It was directed by and featured Baldoni, while Lively was both a star and producer. Rumors swirled of conflict between Lively and Baldoni during a summer press tour for the film. Confirming this, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni on December 20, accusing the filmmaker of sexual harassment and launching a publicity campaign to tarnish her reputation.
Baldoni has denied any wrongdoing, with his legal team telling Newsweek that the allegations are “categorically false.”
During her video, Beckinsale shared that at an unspecified time, she was told she would face a lawsuit if she didn’t take part in a photoshoot.
At the time, she had miscarried a baby just a day before the shoot, and explained that she was still bleeding as a result.
“I’ve been forced by a publicist—that I was employing—to do a photoshoot the day after I’d had a miscarriage,” she recalled.
“I said, ‘I can’t, I’m bleeding. I don’t want to go and change my clothes in front of people that I don’t know and do a photoshoot. I’m bleeding out a miscarriage.’ And she was like, ‘You have to, or you’ll be sued.'”
Beckinsale on Weinstein
Beckinsale also spoke about jailed movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who was once one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures as the cofounder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company.
He fell from grace after a number of women accused him of sexual misconduct. The allegations against him helped spark the global #MeToo movement in 2017.
Weinstein was found guilty in 2020 of the sexual assault of former production assistant Miriam Haley and the rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He was also convicted of rape in Los Angeles and sentenced to 16 years in prison, but his lawyers are appealing the decision.
The filmmaker’s New York conviction was overturned earlier this year, with a retrial set for 2025. He has consistently denied all allegations of misconduct.
In her video, Beckinsale said that she “was one of the ones fortunate enough not to be shown a body part or massage or anything like that.”
“But if you turned down a movie or a production deal, he would get on the phone and talk to every director in town, every magazine editor, and say, ‘Don’t use her,'” she alleged. “And it worked.”
On Not Being Able to See Her Daughter During Filming
Beckinsale shares a 25-year-old daughter called Lily with former partner Michael Sheen, from whom she split in 2003.
Speaking in her Instagram video, Beckinsale recalled how she once dealt with a difficult co-star whose unprofessional behavior prevented her from spending time with her daughter.
“I’ve been on a film, for example, where I was, by the end of it, referred to over the walkie-talkie and to my face as, ‘That c***,’ because I had said, ‘I’m finding it very difficult. My co-star is drunk every day, and he’s obviously going through something, and I have sort of sympathy for that. But I’m also waiting, as is the whole crew, six hours a day for him to learn his lines, and it means I’m not getting to see my daughter in the evenings ever for the whole movie.’
“The studio’s response was to give me a bike so that I could ride around the studio lot while I was waiting. And then, of course, I was called a “c***” a “b****.” At one point during a take, I was called, ‘You stupid b****,’ and then the director ran off crying, and I had to be the one to actually get him back and talk him off the ledge [for] us continue filming.”
Beckinsale on ‘Very Unsafe Fight Situation’ with Male Actors
Beckinsale also alleged that she found herself in “unsafe” situations while filming fight scenes with two actors on two different movies.
“I’ve been put in a situation—very unsafe fight situation—on two different films, with two different actors,” she said. “Sometimes, there’s a certain kind of actor who gets a kind of a thrill out of, sort of, legally being able to harm a woman during a fight sequence.”
“I was harmed to the point where there were MRIs proving it,” she went on, explaining that when she spoke up, the reaction did not go in her favor.
“Actually, what happened was I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem,” she recalled, adding that she was “blamed and ostracised, left out of cast dinners, not spoken to—as soon as I mentioned that there was a problem.”
On Blake Lively’s Suit Against Justin Baldoni
At the start of her video, Beckinsale addressed Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni.
“I’ve been following, as a lot of people have, this situation between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni,” she said. “And I must stress, I don’t know either of them. I’ve never met either of them, and I wasn’t on the set, so I can’t speak to any of that.
“But what I will say is what it has highlighted is this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, or whatever, in this industry.”
As the video came to a close, Beckinsale said of the industry: “If you’re a woman and you have a legitimate complaint—not, ‘I don’t have enough baby llamas in my trailer, and I’d like more of a lie-in—but, ‘Somebody’s touching my boobs or calling me a c***, or calling me a b****,’ or whatever, you’re f*****. On the whole, you’re f*****. If you mention it, you’re f*****.
“It’s supposed to be that you absorb it, and somehow, then you’re somehow the homey that’s got to stop—that has to stop.
“And I’m grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting the fact that this is not an archaic problem that no one’s facing. This is continuing, 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.”