Kate Beckinsale says Michael Bay made her lose weight for "Pearl Harbor"
Enough time has apparently passed since the making of 2001's "Pearl Harbor" that Kate Beckinsale feels comfortable talking about her time under notoriously grumpy director Michael Bay. And as it turns out, Bay had a few notes about her appearance.
"I don't think I fit the type of actress Michael Bay had met before," Beckinsale said during an interview on the Graham Norton Show Friday. "I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren't bigger than my head and I wasn't blonde."
It probably didn't help relations between director and actress that he had some ideas on how she could change her look -- even shortly after giving birth. "I'd just had my daughter and had lost weight but was told that if I got the part, I'd have to work out," she said. "And I just didn't understand why a 1940s nurse would do that."
Beckinsale also recalled Bay's comments about her to the press, which only reinforced his dissatisfaction.
"When we were promoting the film, Michael was asked why he had chosen Ben [Affleck] and Josh [Hartnett], and he said, 'I have worked with Ben before and I love him, and Josh is so manly and a wonderful actor,'" she said. "Then when he was asked about me, he'd say, 'Kate wasn't so attractive that she would alienate the female audience.'"