Actress Kate Beckinsale took to her Instagram account to say she’s been “assaulted” and “felt up” on movie sets in the past, and has been made to feel like “I was the problem”.
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The Underworld star posted the above video on Instagram yesterday (December 30), explaining she was coming forward with her experiences as a result of the ongoing Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni allegations.
If you’re not up-to-date on those allegations, Lively sued her It End With Us co-star and director Baldoni last week, accusing him of sexual harassment and conducting a smear campaign against her. He’s denied the claims and is now countersuing her.
Beckinsale said she’s never met either Lively or Baldoni, and that she has been “following the situation”, which she thinks shines a light on “this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, whatever, in this industry”.
In Beckinsale’s post, she outlines some of her own first-hard memories, “At the age of 18, (I was) felt up by somebody that I really trusted on a crew. Went to the lead actress, who’s known for being a supporter of women, and said this has happened and was told, ‘No, it didn’t.’ I went to another actress, crying, and said I’d just been assaulted by this man and again told, ‘No, you haven’t been.’”
She went on to describe “unsafe situations” she has experienced while shooting action scenes, “There’s a certain kind of actor who gets kind of a thrill out of legally being able to harm a woman during a fight sequence. And I was harmed, to the point where there were MRIs proving it. And actually what happened was I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem, blamed and ostracized … as soon as I mentioned there was a problem.”
Kate also detailed times that she was called a “cunt” and a “stupid bitch” on sets and remembers hearing crew members talk about her appearance and body image. She also talked about being made to take part in a photoshoot the day after suffering a miscarriage, with a publicist telling her, “You have to or you’ll be sued”.
The caption to Beckinsale’s Instagram video reads: “It is very, very, very easy to foment hatred against actresses, as was seen in the transcripts of conversations … 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.”
“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.”
After filing her legal action against Baldoni, Lively said in a statement to The New York Times, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Yikes. I bet you these two cases are merely scratching the surface of Hollywood’s sick underbelly. Brutal, brutal stuff.
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