Even though Kate Beckinsale and Len Wiseman separated in 2015, their marriage ran alongside a very professional relationship for almost a decade. During an interview with late-night host Conan O’Brien, the actress detailed her working experience — which included both action-packed fights and highly intimate scenes — with Wiseman during the filming of the movie Underworld: Evolution.
Beckinsale played the series’ main character, Selene, for over a decade . While filming the original Underworld, Beckinsale and Wiseman reportedly “fell in love” with each other but that didn’t interfere with their professional relationship. Once production started on its sequel, however, the two had been married for about two years. Again, the two kept it professional, but it seems like there were a few scenes that were a little awkward to film for the two.
The actress shared that while shooting certain love scenes in Underworld: Evolution, she realized that she was in the middle of a unique situation. “There is something creepy about your husband videotaping you while you’re naked with another man,” the actress joked while speaking with Conan.
The Pearl Harbor actress continued that by this time, the former couple had already done the first Underworld film. By the time filming began for the next movie, she said, co-star Scott Speedman had become “adopted” into their family. Speedman’s character ultimately becomes Beckinsale’s romantic interest in the sequel, which included an intense love scene. Her and her then-husband’s familiarity with Speedman made working with the actor “easier” when it came to filming those uncomfortable scenes.
Kate Beckinsale wasn’t the only one aware of the awkwardness
In 2017, Wiseman admitted that he sometimes got a little uncomfortable watching his then-wife get hot and heavy with her male co-stars. “It’s amazing how much your blood boils immediately if you call cut and it doesn’t stop right way,” the director stated in an interview with Celebuzz in 2012. “On Underworld, I was being very polite and they didn’t hear me. You’ve got to stop when I call cut. So now I make a point of having a megaphone during love scenes.”
Wiseman and Beckinsale worked on all five of the Underworld films together and the 2012 remake of Total Recall. The couple began dating after meeting on the set of the first Underworld film. Wiseman was married to his former wife, Dana, at the time before their divorce became finalized by Christmas of that year. The two wed in 2004.
For Beckinsale this wasn’t the first time that she had to balance work and her personal life. The actress was in a long-term relationship with Michael Sheen, with whom she has a daughter. Beckinsale and Sheen starred in the Underworld films together, but the two called it quits in 2003.
Funnily enough, Beckinsale had persuaded Wiseman to cast Sheen in Underworld, but the actress ended up pursuing a relationship with the director after the filming had wrapped. Beckinsale has stated before that she still maintains a very close relationship with Sheen for their daughter. Beckinsale and Wiseman married in 2004 and announced their separation in 2015. Their divorce was finalized in 2019.
