As Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle shines light on the harrowing working conditions for women in Hollywood, Kate Beckinsale is opening up about her own experiences with mistreatment and harassment in the industry. Those experiences, the actress said in a new Instagram video, include having to do a photoshoot just one day after suffering a miscarriage.
In the lengthy video, Beckinsale explains that while she has “never met” Lively or Baldoni and wasn’t on the It Ends With Us set, the situation has brought up memories of similar experiences and the backlash she faced after speaking out. “What it has highlighted is this machine that goes into effect when a woman complains about something legitimately offensive, upsetting, harmful, whatever, in this industry,” Beckinsale says.
Among other instances of mistreatment, Beckinsale recalled being “forced by a publicist, that I was employing, to do a photoshoot the day after I’d had a miscarriage.”
In that instance, as in others, Beckinsale pushed back but wasn’t heard. “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 photo shoot. I’m bleeding out a miscarriage,'” she recalled. “[The publicist] was like, ‘You’ll have to, or you’ll be sued.'”
Previously, Beckinsale has spoken on Instagram about experiencing a miscarriage at 20 weeks that caused her to “absolutely collapse inside… There is grief, shame and shock so often that come with an experience like this, plus the heartbreak of your body continuing, after the loss, to act as if it had a child to nurture.” She went on to describe a miscarriage as being “the loneliest, most soul destroying period of time,” and described it as a “hall of mirrors state of life continuing as if the world hasn’t, for you, come to a bloody and terrible halt.”
Being made to work and pose for photos one day after that experience, while still bleeding, must have been traumatic — and it wasn’t the only time Beckinsale’s health was put on the line due to her industry’s expectations and mistreatment of women. Twice, Beckinsale remembered, “I was put on such a strict diet and exercise program… that I lost my period altogether.” (Research has shown that a person can lose their period due to exercise and nutritional deficiency, which puts stress on the reproductive system. It can be a sign of serious health concerns.)
Beckinsale was also a part of “unsafe” fight scenes in “two different films, with two different actors.” The actress suffered in real injuries, but was gaslit into feeling “like I was the problem,” Beckinsale said. “I was harmed, to the point that there was MRIs proving it.”
Just to state for the record: no one should be forced to injure themselves or work themselves to the point of menstrual disruption for their job, and that goes double for working (and doing a photoshoot!) while experiencing bleeding from a miscarriage. And, for context, experts say that a miscarriage can leave you with low energy levels for a week, and recommend returning to normal activity “slowly.” The decision to return to work should be a conversation between you and your doctor, not a publicist, and should also take into account the mental and emotional trauma of a miscarriage (not just the physical symptoms).
For Beckinsale, sharing these difficult, health-threatening experiences has a purpose. “This has been going on forever,” she states in the video. “I’ve got about 47 million stories similar to this… I’m grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting the fact that this is not an archaic problem that no one’s facing. This is continuing, and then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you.”
Before you go, read about these stars who’ve opened up about their autoimmune conditions:
