E-Paper
Kate Beckinsale backs Blake Lively, details facing sexual assault in Hollywood: ‘I was made to feel I was the problem’
Blake Lively has found support in actor Kate Beckinsale, who has now detailed years of uncomfortable experiences in Hollywood.
Blake Lively's sexual harassment case against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni made headlines a few days ago. Blake has now received support from actor Kate Beckinsale, who took to Instagram to share how she has been harassed, bullied and punished because she chose to complain against unsafe working conditions on a film set. (Also read: Blake Lively sues It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and ‘social manipulation’ campaign)
What Kate said
In a new video posted on her Instagram, Kate began: “What this has highlighted is this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, or whatever else in this industry. I've been on a film, for example, where by the end of it I was referred to over walkie-talkies and to my face as 'that c***,' because I had said, 'I'm finding it very difficult, my costar 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 and it means I'm not getting to see my daughter in the evenings for the whole movie. The studio’s response was to give me a bike so I could ride around the studio lot while I was waiting. And then, of course, I was called a cunt and a b***h. At one point during a take, I was called ‘you stupid b***h.’”
Check out her Instagram post here:
‘I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem’
She went on to add, “Sometimes 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, and left out of cast dinners, not spoken to, as soon as I mentioned there was a problem.”
She also shared, "I was forced by a publicist to do a photoshoot the day after I had a miscarriage. I said, ‘I can’t. I’m bleeding. I don’t want to go and change my clothes in front of people I don’t know and do a photoshoot. I’m bleeding out a miscarriage,'” Beckinsale recounted of the conversation. “And she was like, ‘You have to, or you’ll be sued.’ I have about 47 million stories similar to this,” she said. “I was, at the age of 18, 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 concluded saying, "If you're a woman and you have a legitimate complaint...like 'somebody's touching my boobs' or 'calling me a c***,' you're f****d. If you mention it, you're f****d. It's supposed to be that you absorb it and then you're the homie. That has to stop. And I'm grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting the fact that this is not an archaic problem...this is continuing. And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you."
Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, accusing him of multiple offenses, including changing intimate scenes without her consent, unwanted kissing, and probing into her personal life. She also claimed Baldoni launched a smear campaign to destroy her reputation.
