Kate Beckinsale Thanked God Ben Affleck Was With Her on the Set of ‘Pearl Harbor’
Kate Beckinsale once opened up about what it was really like to work with Ben Affleck on the set of ‘Pearl Harbor’.
Celebrity
Kate Beckinsale thought she was the only person miserable on the set of ‘Pearl Harbor’ until she talked to her co-star Ben Affleck.
by Antonio Stallings
Published on January 30, 2025
Ben Affleck collaborated with Kate Beckinsale on Pearl Harbor, which was one of the hardest movies Affleck ever had to prep for. But he wasn’t the only actor on set who felt that way, as Beckinsale had a similar reaction to the movie’s taxing conditions.
Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale | Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesPearl Harbor came to Beckinsale at a time when there were a few major changes happening in the actor’s life. She had her first child not too long before. Born and raised in England, Beckinsale also wasn’t very familiar with the historic event Pearl Harbor was based on. Neither was she all that aware of the movie’s director Michael Bay.
“I was living in New York at the time and I had to put myself on tape for this movie. I’m very, very parochially English — I had not heard of Michael Bay, I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought I was making a period piece about Pearl Harbor. It was a massive shock, because it was very much not that,” Beckinsale said in an interview with Vulture.
But Beckinsale wouldn’t know just how different Pearl Harbor was from the period pieces she’d do until she had to prepare for the film. Beckinsale just recovered from a pregnancy she felt had her looking like Jabba the Hutt before doing Bay’s project. Still, she was able to get back in shape before Pearl Harbor, and was satisfied with her results. But her confidence took a blow when Bay told her she was cast in his blockbuster because she wasn’t too attractive. Beckinsale took even further offense when Bay told her she still wasn’t quite thin enough for her Pearl Harbor character. As a result, the Underworld star had to endure an intense training regimen that took her past her limit.
“I remember going to the fitting and trying on a few swimsuits for a scene… I felt fairly triumphant,” she recalled in an old interview with Self (via Digital Spy). “[The costume designer] literally went grey in the face and said, ‘Do you want me to tell you how long you’ve got before this scene is shot?’”
“By the time I arrived back at my hotel, I’d been faxed an incredibly rigorous gym schedule and a diet,” she added.
Fortunately, her co-star Affleck had to go through an exhaustive training routine of his own to prepare for the movie. Knowing Affleck might’ve been just as miserable as her on set helped comfort her in a way.
“Thank God for Ben Affleck,” Beckinsale said. “He was so candid about the producers doing the exact same thing to him. Once I realised it was happening to the boys, too… I was able to put it in perspective.”
Beckinsale has been very open about some of the horror stories she’s experienced in the film industry. After Harvey Weinstein was convicted, for instance, she was one of many actors who revealed her own uncomfortable interactions with the producer. Affleck, however, was one actor who she couldn’t have had enough praise for. According to Variety, Beckinsale took to social media to share other horrific incidences she had with disrespectful co-stars. She highlighted one situation where a co-star was particularly and unnecessarily rough with her during a fight scene.
“There’s a certain kind of actor who gets a thrill out of legally being able to harm a woman during a fight sequence,” she said. “And I was harmed, to the point where there were MRIs proving it. I was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem and blamed and left out of cast dinners as soon as I mentioned there was a problem.”
Some online theorized that Affleck might’ve been the co-star she was talking about. But Beckinsale was quick to put the theory to bed before it gained any traction.
“Ben Affleck protected me on an extremely toxic film set and could not have behaved more respectably,” Beckinsale said according to Yahoo.
Still, Beckinsale refused to name her aggressor, since he was just a symptom of a much larger issue.
“I am not going to go into any more specific detail on who it was or wasn’t because frankly the most problematic part has actually not been the actors, it has been that reporting a problem or an abuse has resulted in a greater punishment than one could ever imagine,” she added.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
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