Kate Beckinsale Goes Retro

Kate Beckinsale is the cover girl for Inauguration Issue 2009 of Capitol File magazine. I really digg Kate no matter what style she promotes. Known for her expertise in supernatural thrillers, she is taking a break from the fictitious underworld for a turn in the “ripped from the headlines” political thriller Nothing But the Truth, and she’s nothing short of amazing as she portrays one of America’s most iconic first ladies in an exclusive fashion shoot.

Over the past decade, British beauty Kate Beckinsale has had an American movie career that’s encompassed every genre from romance (Serendipity, The Aviator) to horror (Vacancy, the Underworld series).

And while most of her films have been well received by audiences, she hasn’t yet found that singular project that could propel her into the upper realm of paychecks, or possibly thanking the Academy. Until now.

In her latest film, Nothing But the Truth, costarring Angela Bassett, Alan Alda, David Schwimmer, Matt Dillon, and Vera Farmiga, Beckinsale plays Rachel Armstrong, a Washington, DC-based reporter who reveals the identity of a CIA agent and then goes to jail for refusing to name her source.

Here are some highlights from the interview.

What was it like to film in a prison? If I hadn’t decided against a life of crime before, I definitely have now. They were quite frightening about “Don’t touch anything and always wash your hands.” The level of general filth, I didn’t really think hard about it, but the prison warden was really worried about us touching things and getting hepatitis or something. But it was quite interesting because the weird celebrity culture that we’re in, it doesn’t matter whether people are incredibly oppressed in prison, they still want me to autograph their Bible. You feel ridiculous dressed up in a very similar prison costume, and you know they’re all looking at you thinking, “She’s going home to her hotel, and we’re staying here.”

A large part of the film’s plot centers on a very daunting ethical question. Did you find yourself wondering, What would I do in that situation? I think that if you’re not the person involved, then it’s much easier to come at it from a hypothetical, intellectual place. I didn’t find anything particularly interesting in playing someone who is heroically standing up for a principle. As an actor, [you try to] find the personal, the emotional reasons. It’s almost as if you’re trying to play someone who’s saintly. There’s nothing more boring to watch than somebody going around making the right decisions all the time. As a woman and a mother, I had a very hard time with how long my character is in jail without seeing her son. I know that in terms of heroics, I probably would be less capable because I would be thinking of the effect on my child and I’d probably have to come home.

As you were promoting this political film, America was going through quite an interesting election. Did you follow it at all? I followed it in a very strange position of not being able to do anything about it whatsoever because I’m not an American citizen and couldn’t vote. It was impossible to not be caught up in it—it’s such an extraordinary period of time. And we don’t have debates in England, so that whole thing was very fascinating to me. But I was constantly trying to sit on people and get them to vote for Obama for me.

You do spend quite a lot of your time here in America. Have you ever thought about becoming an American citizen? I haven’t yet; I may at some point. A British friend of mine—a much older man who’s about the most British person I’ve ever met and has been here God knows how long—has just become an American citizen. He may not be American, but his children live here and he wanted to be part of voting on who’s going to be in power for them, which makes sense to me. I have to say I’ve never planned on living in America. I seem to have got myself here, to my amazement, married to an American—none of these things was I remotely anticipating. Maybe if I find myself still here in 10 or 15 years it would probably be silly not to be able to vote.

Source: Capitol File Magazine