Kate Beckinsale Talks Marvel Movies And Surviving Michael Bay On Pearl Harbour

With Hollywood's latest Jane Austen adaptation, Love & Friendship, currently in US cinemas Kate Beckinsale has sat down with Empire to talk the new movie and her wider career, including the upcoming fourth Underworld movie.

Inevitably Beckinsale was asked about the possibility of her ever seeking a role in a Marvel movie, because no interviewer can resist that sort of headline making question. She didn't exactly glisten with positivity:

Have you ever come close to a role in the Marvelverse? Is that something that interests you?I don't know, those girls are often in a fairly similar costume to [my Underworld catsuit] (laughs). That might take me out of the running.You think there'd be too much crossover with Black Widow?I think it's a bit similar. I think I've got my own doll in those trousers.

But what about the films she did sign on for? And most specifically, what about the most notorious blotch on her copy book: Pearl Harbour?

According to Beckinsale, the version of the script she read was "really, really good", but it was mangled before shooting, adding unnecessary broadness.

"I'd been sent this script which was fantastic, super moving and one of those scripts that you cry three times when you're reading it. We didn't shoot that script. There were a lot of rewrites that, in my opinion, were unfortunate, because the script was really, really good... There'd been this lovely backdrop of a metaphorical loss of innocence, but it became this bombastic thing."

And her evaluation of the production seems to put the blame in one place alone...

"I had no idea who Michael Bay was. There wasn't an IMDb then, you just trusted your agent to warn you what you were getting into. And I don't mind difficult people I always got on with the teacher that everybody hated but it was just a different aesthetic from what I could have conceived of with my background. Not to say that I regret doing it because it was an extraordinary achievement to survive how shocking it all was, really. The fact that I had a relatively new baby was probably what saved me from absolutely freaking out. We were doing press six months before it came out and people were already saying how sh*t the movie was. (Thinks) I can't really judge it as a movie. I haven't seen it for years, but if my daughter ever showed any interest I'd probably sit and watch it with her."

So there you go: a hint at the working conditions of a Michael Bay film. Sounds... colourful, doesn't it?