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Only the very brave would mess with action star Kate Beckinsale after the Underworld series — and definitely don’t start on her mother or 22-year-old daughter when she’s around!
Her mum, actress Judy Loe (widow of Kate’s father the comedic star Richard Beckinsale who died aged 31 in 1979) and only child Lily are firmly out of bounds.
Unlike her character in the new film Jolt, she doesn’t have anger issues, but ‘every few years I’ll kick off about something’.
‘My biggest trigger is if someone’s rude to my mum or my kid then I haven’t got so much restraint,’ she explained.
Only the very brave would mess with action star Kate Beckinsale after the Underworld series — and definitely don’t start on her mother or 22-year-old daughter when she’s around!
Otherwise, she’s more of an imploder. ‘Don’t forget, I grew up in Chiswick! I’m not throwing things around,’ she stressed.
We’re laughing, not fighting. Which is just as well, because after seeing Beckinsale, 47, in Jolt, a fun, engaging action comedy out on Amazon Prime from July 23, it would not end well for me.
Believe me, you do not put a foot wrong with Lindy, a woman born with a brain disorder which means she’s unable to control a rage that endows her with phenomenal strength. She could crush me like a nut.
Lindy has to wear a contraption that shoots bolts of electricity through her if she presses a button in time. It’s extreme anger management.
Unlike her character in the new film Jolt, Beckinsale doesn’t have anger issues, but ‘every few years I’ll kick off about something’
Beckinsale was attracted to her because she has ‘real sass’ and she liked the fact that she’s English, but not a rose. ‘She’s ballsy,’ Kate declared.
There’s delight in seeing Lindy make mincemeat of the sinister thugs — and cops — in pursuit of her for a murder she didn’t commit.
Filming Jolt left Beckinsale battered. It wasn’t the brawls that left her bruised, though. ‘It’s usually the most mundane things that leave you with a bruise, like opening the window.’
She added: ‘You do all these fights and it’s carefully managed and choreographed and then you’ve got to drop to your knee and that’s when you end up with a completely black leg.’
I wondered how the studio got her in shape for all the leaping about. She snorted and said that on big films the blokes get a work-out trailer. ‘And then for us it’ll be like, “You figure it out, it’ll be fine”.’
She sighed: ‘I think they expect women will just work it out for themselves.’
We’re laughing, not fighting. Which is just as well, because after seeing Beckinsale, 47, in Jolt, a fun, engaging action comedy out on Amazon Prime from July 23, it would not end well for me
Beckinsale keeps herself in ‘good nick’, she said, by following instructions in old videos prepared by Mandy Ingber, her yoga teacher, and guru to stars such as Jennifer Aniston. ‘It really helps to be bendy,’ she said.
She does weights and running, but doesn’t necessarily enjoy exercising. Actually, she prefers a sheet mask and a hot bath.
What’s a sheet mask, I wondered. Patiently, she told me. ‘Those kind of things that make you look mummified with eyeholes .
‘If I’m doing night-shoots where you tend to quite quickly resemble a walnut, I might do two sheet masks a week.’
We both noted that Lindy in Jolt is an original, independent character ‘who isn’t based on a comic book or a video game’.
Plus, Lindy’s edgy and humorous qualities are enhanced by Beckinsale’s own split-second comic timing. ‘I was raised on really good British comedy. I watched because my dad’s in them — Porridge, Rising Damp, The Lovers. Also, banter’s a British characteristic.’
She recalled using humour to her advantage when young. ‘I wasn’t a particularly attractive child, wasn’t good at sports but I was best at making people laugh.’
Thank God there’s talk of Jolt 2.
Watch out for…
Director and producer Michael Grandage, who has been developing a new play.
While Boris Johnson has been behaving as if the Belfast Agreement/Good Friday Agreement, to give it its full name, doesn’t exist, I hear that Grandage has been working on a stage drama with Northern Irish playwright Owen McCafferty that will see a cast of amazing characters responsible for the historic peace deal on the West End stage next year.
McCafferty has apparently done a ton of research and has spoken to some of the participants still living, including advisors and associates.
He’s rumoured to be planning to deliver the completed script to Grandage late this summer.
While Boris Johnson has been behaving as if the Belfast Agreement/Good Friday Agreement doesn’t exist, I hear that director and producer Michael Grandage has been working on a stage drama with Northern Irish playwright Owen McCafferty that will see a cast of amazing characters responsible for the historic peace deal
We’re likely to see an array of top actors cast to portray the likes of David Trimble and John Hume, the two leaders who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the agreement (the play is called Agreement).
And who will portray Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, Mo Mowlam and the other officials involved? Not sure if Bill Clinton will be on stage or at the other end of a telephone.
I gather that McCafferty and Grandage hope the production will be ready in time to run in London in the first half of next year when audiences might be more confident and plentiful than they are now.
Grandage’s theatre troupe is also putting on an adaptation of Julian Barnes’s The Lemon Table. Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars) will take the play on tour this autumn.
There’s a lot of ‘can do’ spirit from theatre folk who have been knocked sideways by the pandemic.
Take, for instance, Reuben Speed a stage designer who has joined forces with producer Sasha Regan to put on an open air production of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun at Betley Court Farm in Staffordshire, owned by Speed’s parents.
The idea was to try to give work to creatives who returned to the region because of Covid 19.
Stage designer Reuben Speed has joined forces with producer Sasha Regan to put on an open air production of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun at Betley Court Farm in Staffordshire. Pictured: Gemma Sutton and Joel Montague rehearsing
‘We realised we had all these actors on our doorstep,’ Speed told me.
Like Gemma Sutton from Macclesfield, who was in Gypsy with Imelda Staunton, as sharp-shooter Annie Oakley, Joel Montague (Funny Girl and School of Rock) and Jordan Cunningham (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) who are part of the eight-strong cast.
Performances between July 20-25. Tickets and info: betleycourtfarmproductions.com
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