Kate Beckinsale sues 'Canary Black' producers on claims of negligence and battery, citing 'unsafe conditions' on set
The Serendipity star is accusing Anton Entertainment and producer John Zois of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and battery in a May 21 amended complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The document, which Entertainment Weekly has obtained and reviewed, claims that Beckinsale suffered a knee injury after being exposed to "dangerous and unsafe conditions" on the film's set. Puck was the first to report on the news.
The complaint claims, "Ms. Beckinsale and her team repeatedly raised red flags regarding unsafe conditions on and off set to Defendants, including long, dangerous set days, often lasting fifteen hours, inadequate equipment and medical personnel to help manage the high physical workload and recover from the exertion off set, and failure to adequately inform Ms. Beckinsale of what stunts she was expected to perform until often the moment she had to perform it."
Beckinsale further alleges that despite the repeated concerns, the producers "continued to recklessly and intentionally forge ahead with unsafe filming conditions, forgoing safety to maintain profit margins, and in the process, put Ms. Beckinsale in harm's way."
Beckinsale first took action against the film's producers in December, initially filing as a Jane Doe but in the newly amended complaint, details her on-set injury and several communications between her team and the film's producers.
The complaint claims that Beckinsale's team reached out to producers several times to express their concerns. At one point, Beckinsale's agent, Shani Rosenzweig, wrote in an email to Zois, "No one is actually taking real action to put a plan in place to fix this situation so it never happens again… [Ms. Beckinsale] keeps showing up to set for her call time and everyone around her has been made aware it's going to be a 15 hour [or more] day except for her."
Rosenzweig demanded immediate action to address the unsafe conditions, asking Zois to explain his plans for course correcting and adding, "If you're trying to kill a person, you're doing a great job."
Per the complaint, Zois responded, "I don't know what else to say other than you're right," and agreed to shorten Beckinsale's work days, calling the pace of production "unsustainable."
But Beckinsale's attorneys claim that "set conditions continued to be dangerous," despite Zois's promise, "with production staff routinely pushing Ms. Beckinsale to shoot for fifteen hourdays, and perform dangerous action sequences, without pre-clearing or pre-training."
In December 2022, Beckinsale suffered a complex meniscus tear in her left knee while filming. The injury required surgery and halted production for months. Before returning to set, Beckinsale's surgeon insisted that the actress not be asked to perform stunts involving running, jumping, harness suspension, squatting, or kicking. This request was allegedly disregarded.
Beckinsale's complaint claims that she suffered further aggravation of the knee injury as her doctors orders were repeatedly ignored and she was allegedly coerced into performing "unsafe action sequences."
Representatives for Zois and Anton Entertainment did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment.
The lawsuit is not the first time Beckinsale has opened up about her on set struggles. In the wake of Blake Lively filing a complaint against her It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni — accusing him of sexual harassment and coordinating an online smear campaign against her — Beckinsale lauded the actress for the move in a now-deleted Instagram video.
"I'm grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting the fact that this is not an archaic problem that no one's facing," Beckinsale said. "This is continuing. And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you. And I'm sure that's the case in other industries as well. And it's just got to stop."The video also saw her outline some instances of on-set abuse. Though she did not specify the projects, Beckinsale claimed that on the set of two films, she was put in a "very unsafe fight situation," and on one of them, was "gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem" after being injured.
She added, "There's a certain kind of actor who gets kind of a thrill out of legally being able to harm a woman during a fight sequence."
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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