Interview By: Zak Santucci
During her interview, Hugh Jackman tells a story about doing a stunt where Kate Beckinsale and himself fall onto a mat into a suggestive position. He mentions that the stunt double first landed on him, and then almost hit his shoulder. As he feared getting a knee in the face it was Beckinsale's turn to perform. However, in three takes she 'stuck it every time like an Olympic gymnast.' Beckinsale was proud of her prowess and cleverly noted, 'I'm a nicely brought up English girl, if someone says crotch in the face, they get crotch in the face.'
A crotch in the face was just one of many stunts found in the exhilarating new horror/action movie Van Helsing. Kate Beckinsale is an actress who should be used to such strenuous activity though. She refers to the filming of Underworld as her training period. 'I would have been in huge trouble if I hadn't done Underworld. We had this great stunt coordinator who would say, 'Okay, now you're going to jump off an 80 foot building. Is that fine'' And you'd say, 'Yeah, ooh scary!' but you'd go ahead and do it anyway. But that was really helpful and so was being around the right type of people with the right type of vibe. If you've got friendly people you can trust, some people will throw themselves off buildings for them'like us.' During the really dangerous and difficult stunts, the actress actually had a lot of fun.
In the vein of Underworld, is another movie involving werewolves and vampires: Van Helsing. Many would think that Kate is trying to relive previous success. Or maybe even she has a fervent interest in vampires. However, the truth is that she is not interested in vampires at all. In fact, the script for Underworld was almost not read because she did not think vampires and werewolves were for her. However, she does not see either movie's relationship to vampires as important. They are coincidences of simple premise only. Her character in Van Helsing happens to be much different then her character in Underworld and that is what is important. For her, doing this movie is a step in another direction, even if it is with the same shoes. In addition to being a movie about vampires, Van Helsing is an action movie. When compared to Uma Thurman for her affinity to costume dramas and actions, Beckinsale jokes that the reason they're in both so often is that you have to know how to move in a corset for both. She also remarked on her love for this movie because there is a team and not just a movie with a female action star (although she mentions that has been happening a lot lately). The reluctant team relates more to Romancing the Stone then traditional action films..
It is a good thing for Beckinsale that she picked this movie, because according to her she actually learned a lot which she felt was surprising given the movie's blockbuster status. 'I had such a profound experience with this, there is a real kind of letting go with doing this kind of film where it really is much broader strokes. I think that can be interpreted as 'no acting required' when actually there is a throwing off of anything that is kind of yourself or anything that is inhibiting that I found was very liberating. The next film I did was Aviator with Martin Scorcese and I honestly thank this movie for helping me do that movie.' She likens the set of Van Helsing to a family and seemed genuinely surprised but still pleased at how the movie was a personal help to her. This 'team' working on the monster movie seems to have really stuck with the people it involved and they created a thrilling romp through the classic monsters of our past. To be a part of this, go see Van Helsing in theatres now.
ZakSantucci@TheCinemaSource.com
