Kate Beckinsale Sues Film Producers After Injury On Set

Yahoo

a day ago

Kate Beckinsale has launched a lawsuit against the producers of "Canary Black," accusing them of gross negligence and battery after suffering a serious knee injury on set.
The "Serendipity" star claims she was pushed to work under hazardous conditions that ignored her health, safety, and repeated warnings.
Her legal team says the injury was not only foreseeable but also preventable.
In an amended complaint filed on May 21 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Beckinsale accused "Canary Black" producers, including Anton Entertainment and John Zois, of exposing her to "dangerous and unsafe conditions."
According to court documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly, Beckinsale and her team flagged issues such as grueling 15-hour workdays, a lack of medical personnel, and inadequate stunt preparation.
"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," the filing stated.
Despite the warnings, the lawsuit claims producers continued to prioritize profits over safety. Beckinsale alleged, "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."
Kate Beckinsale initially filed anonymously in December, but the new complaint includes damning communications.
Her agent, Shani Rosenzweig, emailed Zois in frustration, writing, "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 didn't mince words, adding, "If you're trying to kill a person, you're doing a great job."
Zois reportedly replied, "I don't know what else to say other than you're right," acknowledging the production schedule was "unsustainable" and promising changes.
However, according to Beckinsale's legal team, nothing changed.
She was allegedly pressured to work long days and perform dangerous stunts without proper training or safety precautions.
The actress suffered a complex meniscus tear in her left knee in December 2022, requiring surgery and a production shutdown.
Before she returned, her surgeon instructed her to avoid "running, jumping, harness suspension, squatting, or kicking."
However, those orders were allegedly ignored. Beckinsale's complaint states she was coerced into doing "unsafe action sequences," leading to further injury.
Her legal team argued that this ongoing disregard for her health caused severe emotional distress and physical harm.
Kate Beckinsale's legal complaint is not the first time she has spoken out about issues she faced on set.
After Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of harassment and online defamation, Beckinsale praised her for speaking up in a now-deleted Instagram video.
In the deeply personal video, Beckinsale shared disturbing details about the abuse and mistreatment she has endured while working in the film industry. The actress recalled being insulted for calling out a male co-star who was "drunk every day" and caused hours of delays.
She said, per The Blast, "He was going through something. I have sympathy for that, but I was waiting, as was the crew, for six hours a day for him to learn his lines. It means I'm not getting to see my daughter in the evenings the whole movie."
Beckinsale added, "The studio's response was to give me a bike so I could ride around the studio lot while I was waiting. And then, of course, I was called a c-nt and a b-tch. During a take, I was called a 'stupid b-tch.'"
She also revealed that on two different productions, she was subjected to such extreme diet and exercise routines that she "lost my periods altogether."
The actress revealed that a male co-star once injured her during a fight scene, leading to MRIs.
Yet when she raised concerns, she claimed she "was gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem and blamed and left out of cast dinners."
Even more shocking, she shared, "I was forced by a publicist to film the day after I had a miscarriage. 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 photoshoot. I'm bleeding out a miscarriage.'"
Beckinsale continued, "She was like, 'You'll have to, or you'll be sued.'"