Actress Kate Beckinsale speaks out on widespread mistreatment in the entertainment industry

ENGLISH actress Kate Beckinsale has spoken out about the mistreatment she endured in the entertainment industry.

She shared a video on her Instagram account where she detailed several unsettling instances of harassment and abuse she experienced on various sets throughout her career.

Speaking to her 5.6 million followers, Beckinsale, 51, talked about the case involving Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, highlighting the systemic backlash women faced when voicing legitimate grievances in the industry.

"I've been following, as a lot of people have, this situation between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni 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 (of "It Ends With Us" ), so I can't speak to any of that.

"What I will say is, what it has highlighted is this machine that goes into effect when women complain about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, or whatever, in this industry," she said in the video.

The "Serendipity" star recounted a distressing experience on set where she was labeled as "that cunt" simply for speaking up about a male co-star who was "drunk every day" during filming.

"I'm finding it very difficult. My co-star is drunk every day and he's obviously going through something and I have full sympathy for that, but I'm also waiting, as is the whole crew, six hours a day for him to learn his lines," she added.

Beckinsale, who gave birth to her daughter Lily Mo in 1999, revealed that her co-star’s disruptive behaviour meant that she could not even see her daughter in the evenings after work, not for a single night throughout the entire filming.

The constant delays left her with no time for family and the studio’s solution was to give her a bike so she could ride around the lot while waiting.

But that was just the beginning. She shared that in the midst of it all, she was verbally attacked, called a "cunt" and a "bitch."

Things took a darker turn during a take when she was slammed with the words "you stupid bitch," causing the director to run in tears.

Beckinsale, ever the professional, had to step in, talk the actor off the edge and get the shoot back on track.

On top of that, she shared that she often had people standing in front of her to make her appear more "attractive," a reality she said every actress faced.

"I was put on such a strict diet and exercise programme on one movie that I lost my periods altogether. That's happened twice.

"I've been put in a situation, a very unsafe fight situation, on two different films with two different actors... 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 and actually what happened was I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem, blamed and ostracised, left out of cast dinners, not spoken to," she added.

Beckinsale went on to reveal a deeply troubling experience where, just the day after suffering a miscarriage, she was pressured by her publicist to do a photoshoot.

Despite her physical and emotional turmoil, she was told she had no choice but to go ahead with it, even as she was still 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 of miscarriage. And she (publicist) was like, you have to or you'll be sued," she recalled.

Beckinsale also touched on infamous film producer Harvey Weinstein, explaining that while she was "fortunate enough" not to face sexual harassment at his hands, his influence was far-reaching enough to destroy careers.

She revealed that if anyone turned down a movie or production deal, Weinstein would pick up the phone and talk to every director and magazine editor in town, making sure to blackball the person from the industry. She added that disturbingly, his tactics worked.

Beckinsale’s career took off in the early '90s, with memorable roles in Prince of Jutland (1994), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Emma (1996) and The Golden Bowl (2000), before landing iconic parts in Pearl Harbor (2001), Serendipity (2001), The Aviator (2004) and Click (2006).

Yet, despite her success, she pointed out a harsh reality: women in the industry often do not support each other and are expected to "absorb" toxic on-set behaviour.

Sharing her personal and heartbreaking story, she revealed that at the age of 18, she confided in someone she trusted on set but was dismissed.

Desperate, she approached the lead actress, a known advocate for women’s rights, only to be met with disbelief.

"(I) went to another actress and said, crying: "I’ve just been assaulted by this man again" and she responded: "No, you haven't been."

"So this has just been going on forever and what's really depressing is I see a lot of men going around saying: "Oh, it was very different a while ago, you know, the climate is so different, it’s so much better."

"It f****** isn’t," Beckinsale said.

She called on women to break the cycle of silently enduring unacceptable behaviour, emphasising that it was time to stop normalising the mistreatment.

Beckinsale applauded the Lively for shining a spotlight on the harsh reality that these issues were far from relics of the past and continued to persist in the industry today.

"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," she said.

In the caption accompanying her video, Beckinsale emphasised the need for all industries to take workplace grievances seriously without punishing those who speak out.

She highlighted how the entertainment industry often played out such issues in the public eye, turning them into global clickbait that can damage livelihoods, mental health and reputations.

She expressed concern for younger actresses, who faced heightened challenges due to the weaponisation of social media, which can escalate issues to devastating levels.

Beckinsale also condemned how easily public sentiment can be turned against actresses, highlighting the disturbing tactics exposed in the ongoing case.

She called for an end to the practice of using legitimate complaints as weapons against individuals, stressing that this issue transcends industries but was exacerbated in entertainment due to its visibility and public manipulation.

Beckinsale urged for cultural and systemic changes to protect individuals from such harm.

"Complaining about abuse should not lead to 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.

"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," she wrote in the caption.

It was reported that Lively sued her co-star and director of the film "It Ends With Us", Baldoni.

She accused him of displaying inappropriate behaviour, including showing her nude videos without consent and discussing personal matters that made her uncomfortable.

She also claimed that Baldoni orchestrated a smear campaign against her after she voiced her concerns, leading to reputational and financial harm, including losses in her haircare business.

Baldoni has denied the allegations and filed a libel lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing the publication of biased reporting.

The case, which has drawn significant public attention, is currently awaiting a decision from the California Civil Rights Department on further investigation.