British actress Kate Beckinsale has become a star on both sides of the Atlantic with roles in Britflicks ("Shooting Fish"), indie dramas ("The Last Days of Disco"), and mega-blockbusters like "Pearl Harbor". She's currently starring as vampire warrior Selene in the action-packed "Underworld".
You've always said you're not a great horror fan. What tempted you to make "Underworld"?
I'm an action fan, but I wasn't much of a horror girl. At first I thought this would mean wearing a gingery wig and a long nightie and doing lots of screaming and garlic eating, so I wasn't that interested. But when I saw the drawings that the director had done, I realised that it was a very cool and very slick action movie.
How daunting was the training?
I found it immensely liberating. I'd never fired a gun, I'd never punched anybody. The fact that I managed to do it at all felt like such a big achievement. I was the girl who used to bunk off PE at school.
What kind of things were they teaching you?
I did gymnastics, yoga, wire training, guns, boxing, running, all sorts of stuff.
So are you quite lethal?
I think I'm now a lot harder than I actually am. That's the thing about action films - you start thinking you're tough, but you're really still a big wuss from Chiswick.
Was the PVC bodysuit difficult to work in?
It was actually incredibly comfortable. I dreaded it more than any other costume I've ever had - just because you don't want to feel bloated! I wore the same thing pretty much every single day for four months, so the fact that I still liked it at the end was a big achievement.
And how does it feel to know that a whole generation of teenage boys will be lusting after you?
I'm as terrified of teenage boys now as I was when I was a teenager myself! So I'm trying very hard not to think about that... I'd be very scared to be in a room full of them!
Your co-star Bill Nighy says his makeup was torturous...
Mine was great! It was half an hour, took 30 minutes to put on, and they threw some olive oil and some water in my hair and that was it. It was quite a shock on my next film, "Van Helsing" [a vampire hunting drama with Hugh Jackman and Richard Roxburgh], which is an action movie period drama. I had to come in three hours earlier for makeup, it was awful.
If someone had asked you to play a werewolf, would you have still said yes?
Did you notice that there were no lady werewolves? I don't think America is ready for hairy women. But playing a werewolf wouldn't have been half as much fun. It looks a bit painful, to be honest. All that stretching agony is a little too much like PMT for my liking!
