Kate Beckinsale graces the January 2020 cover of Redbook Magazine. Inside, in the accompanying interview, the 38-year-old actress dishes on starring as Selene in the Underworld series, balancing motherhood and career, her unconventional family, but also about men, marriage, nude scenes, and why every woman needs a little latex in her life.
Speaking about her role as Selene in ‘Underworld: Awakening’, Kate Beckinsale confesses that, “I love that I now get to play these empowered, kick-ass women… Here I am with a gun; here I am on a wire; here I am learning gymnastics… I very much wanted to play roles that were not just the girl taking a shower, the girl who was getting beaten, or just the girl. Now I’m someone who goes to Comic-Con!”
As on nude scenes, the actress admits that, “I think it’s worse nowadays, because you do something like that and somebody immediately makes a five-times as long feature on YouTube to rock music, and they play it over and over again. I’m not averse to doing a nude scene, but it would have to be something I felt I could really argue for in front of my daughter, and so far that hasn’t happened.”
On having a break and her time away from work, Kate says that, “I was at home. We’ve got a kind of unconventional family situation, with two dads, and I’ve always been the constant parent, the one who is here. Even if I’m working, it’s me. So if anything ripples the water, then it’s important to be home. My daughter is about to be 13, and I realize how fleeting time is. I was happy to be around Lily to talk about her day when she got home.”
The actress also opens up about other topics such as balancing motherhood and professional life, her family and her constant state of anxiety. “I’m genetically programmed to be beset with the odd doubt or neurosis. But I’m finally comfortable accepting that rather than trying to cure myself of it,” Kate told Redbook.
On her husband, director Len Wiseman, Beckinsale says that, “We’re just a good couple. Having a husband who’s comfortable being very affectionate is important. Women do well with that. If the husband is very loving, the wife blossoms, and everybody’s fine.”
As for her rather unconventional family, she confesses that, “I think Lily feels comfortable with the family she has, and she’s very used to Michael [Sheen, Beckinsale’s first husband] being away… I’m not naïve enough to think that having separated parents has no effect on Lily. I’m sure it does. But she certainly has never heard me talk negatively about either of her dads.”
But how does she manage to balance her personal life and her career? “One thing that’s so amazing about women is that we spend the limited brain space we have when we’re working or raising kids going, ‘How can I improve this?’… One of the things I find most helpful is having friends who have kids at various different ages. The women I like most are the ones who are honest and cop to what they’re doing,” Kate told the magazine.
Catch the rest of Kate Beckinsale’s interview in the January 2020 issue of REDBOOK.
Photos courtesy of Redbook