UK Elle: Kate Beckinsale Gets Sexy

Kate Beckinsale, A-list actress, wife to film director Len Wiseman and mother to daughter Lily, 9 does the December issue of UK Elle and the 35-year-old Brit is looking fantastic!  She dishes on family, her career and life in general.

More photos after the jump!

Kate on her 'californication' transformation – she hopes it's not true:

"Californi-what?’ she asks, with a sardonic smile. "Oh Christ, I hope not. OK, the smoking I’ll give you, but I didn’t give it up simply to fit in, I just lost the compulsion. Honest. Otherwise, I’m still very much the girl from Chiswick, alright?"

On having an assistant:

"I know, I know, it’s ridiculous, right? I remember when Claire Danes turned up on this movie we were doing together [1999's Brokedown Palace] with an assistant, and I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t understand why anybody would need somebody to assist you to act. The production crew insisted on hiring me one as well, and I was traumatised. I only have one assistant though," she says, "and it really does make life easier out here. But let me just point out that I am always very nice to her, I haven’t lost my British manners. The way I see it, you can’t possibly shout at someone who knows which kind of tampons you use, can you?"

On becoming a successful actress:

"If you’d told me when I was 18 I’d one day be in a film with Robert De Niro," she says, her eyes saucers, "I’d never have believed you. In fact, I still don’t. They say I’m a successful actress these days, but I still feel like a right old herbert somehow…"

On getting pregnant unexpectedly at age 24 (with ex Michael Sheen):

"No, I wasn’t worried about the impact having a baby would have on my career. I was so young that taking a year out didn’t seem like a big deal. Somehow it seems a scarier prospect now. It wasn’t easy balancing my work and a baby to start off with, though. When I was doing Pearl Harbor, I didn’t want to employ a nanny, as I couldn’t bear the idea of someone else looking after Lily."

On relocating to the US:

"Nobody knew who I was when I first got here," she says. "All they saw was this Chekhov-reading Brit who had, as they saw it, no edge. I tried hard to prove otherwise." Which explains the succession of high-octane thrillers she subsequently starred in, one of which, 2003’s Underworld (vampires, werewolves, fangs galore), propelled her into the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons: a love scandal. "Yep," she nods, "I fell in love with the director, and ran away with him." (Her now husband Len Wiseman)

On working-out:

"I just can’t make it part of my daily life. I go to the gym when I have to, and if I have to bulk up or slim down for a film, I will. I’ve recently got back into exercising four times a week. Although I hate what a personal trainer represents, mine is really good – we mainly do weights and running. I run for half an hour at a time but never outdoors as I don’t exercise in public. My gym’s in my garage at home."

On daughter Lily's film debut (in Everybody’s Fine, playing Kate’s character as a child):

"She told me that she enjoyed the experience, but would rather become a writer instead. She’s currently writing seven novels. Quite a girl, my Lily." 

To read the article in full, click the source below.

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