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Kate Beckinsale Claims Michael Bay Body-Shamed Her: ‘You’re Not That Hot’

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 01:10 PST, Jun 1, 2016

https://rumble.com/embed/vcf38/

Kate Beckinsale claims she was body-shamed by Michael Bay during the casting of Pearl Harbor. Beckinsale says that the casting of Pearl Harbor came just after the birth of her daughter, and though she had lost all of the weight, she was told that if she got the role, she would have to work out to keep it. When promoting Pearl Harbor, Beckinsale says that she was baffled when Bay continuously praised Ben Affleck, and treated her as an afterthought. Beckinsale found Bay’s behavior peculiar and dismissive.

E! News stresses that Kate Beckinsale is considered one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood, so it’s odd that she would be treated badly by director Michael Bay. Beckinsale was recently on The Graham Norton Show, where she opened up about working with Michael Bay, who she claims made comments constantly about her looks and her weight.

“I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren’t bigger than my head and I wasn’t blond.”

Beckinsale says that Bay stressed that she needed to up her workouts in order to play a nurse in 1940 for Pearl Harbor, but it was unclear why a nurse in that situation would need to be ultra-buff. But Beckinsale says that was a condition of getting the role from Bay.

Beckinsale says that during the press for Pearl Harbor, Bay would praise Ben Affleck or Josh Hartnett, but repeatedly put Beckinsale down. Beckinsale says that Bay had nothing but praise for her male counterparts, but was insulting when speaking of her.

“Then when he was asked about me, he’d say, ‘Kate wasn’t so attractive that she would alienate the female audience.’ ”

She claims that Bay made such statements on various press stops while promoting Pearl Harbor.

Vanity Fair says that Kate Beckinsale believes that she was not Michael Bay’s type of actress, because he usually cast women who were far more obvious. Michael Bay went on and on about his male leads in Pearl Harbor, but did treat Beckinsale as one of the ugly step sisters when doing press for the movie. An interviewer asked why Bay chose Beckinsale for her role in Pearl Harbor.

“I didn’t want someone who was too beautiful. Women feel disturbed when they see someone’s too pretty. I’m not saying Kate’s not pretty… [she] is very funny, could hang with the guys. She’s not so neurotic about everything, like some actresses.”

Bay claims that he felt the same way about Kate Winslet on Titanic as he felt about Beckinsale.

“When you look at Titanic, Kate Winslet is pretty, but not overwhelmingly beautiful. That makes it work better for women.”

Mashable says that Michael Bay, far from being a feminist icon, seems to seek a body type as opposed to a person when it comes to casting, and Beckinsale didn’t fit the suit. After filming wrapped, Bay continued to make comments in reference to Beckinsale about his female viewership, insisting that women are disturbed when an actress in a film is too beautiful, and that is why Beckinsale is a good fit.

When speaking of Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, Bay never mentioned how they looked, or how the audience would embrace them, but he spoke at length about Beckinsale and Winslet in a way that suggested that they were window dressing instead of part of the story.

Beckinsale says she was puzzled by Bay’s comments, and initially thought that they were a one-off, but then he repeated them at each press stop. Mashable made a cheeky comment in response to Bay’s criticism of Beckinsale’s attractiveness.

“Don’t worry, Bay, you’re not too attractive to be a male director in Hollywood!”

[Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images]

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