Kate Beckinsale: Encyclopedia II - Kate Beckinsale - Film career

Kate Beckinsale - Film career

During her first year at Oxford, Beckinsale was offered a part in Kenneth Branagh's big-screen film, Much Ado About Nothing, adapted from the Shakespeare play. She spent her last year of studies in Paris, after which she decided to quit university and concentrate on her acting career. She subsequently appeared in a few notable but low-profile films, including Cold Comfort Farm (in 1995), Shooting Fish and The Last Days of Disco (both in 1998). During this time, Beckinsale also appeared in television films and in stage roles.

Her first major American film, Brokedown Palace (1999), was a not a commercial success. Soon after, Beckinsale was cast in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, which was one of the highest grossing films of its year. In the years following, she appeared in a series of American films that were high-profile but were given a somewhat poor critical reception, including Serendipity (2001), Underworld (2003) and Van Helsing (2004). Notably, she appeared as Ava Gardner in The Aviator, a role for which she gained 20 pounds.

In 2005, Beckinsale was placed at #85 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" [1]. Previously, she had also been placed at #16 in Maxim magazine's "HOT 100" (2003), #63 in Stuff Magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" (2002) [2], and was chosen by Hello magazine as "England’s #1 Beauty", also in 2002.

In January 2006, Beckinsale starred in Underworld: Evolution, a sequel to her 2003 film, Underworld, again directed by her husband, Len Wiseman. The film opened at the #1 spot at the box office, grossing over $26 million in its first weekend of release [3].

On January 24, 2006, Beckinsale was featured on the MTV series, Punk'd. The set-up for the segment took place at the Avalon Hotel in Los Angeles.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Film career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki