Kate Beckinsale on body image: “Pregnancy changes a woman’s body & it should”

The three stars of Total Recall are featured on the cover of the August issue of Maxim. Colin Farrell seems… bewildered? Yes. Me too, Colin. You know a movie isn’t going to be some towering pinnacle of feminism when the best part seems to be Kate Beckinsale, rocking cleavage and a space-age gun. So it is with the Total Recall remake. I’ll probably see it (as a rental, or at the dollar movie), but I’m not happy about having to make the choice between A) Thinking Jessica Biel even has the acting chops to pull off a sympathetic, 2-dimensonal character like Melina and B) Thinking Kate Beckinsale has the requisite bad-assery to pull off the mega-bitch character Lori. If I’m forced to choose, I choose Kate being a mega-bitch. Because Biel is simply awful. Here’s the latest trailer:

The special effects look pretty cool. But Colin really needs to stop sleepwalking through these remakes and stuff. Remember when everyone hoped he would become the next great dramatic actor? Anyway, Kate also appears on the new issue of Glamour UK. Some highlights from the interview:

On how losing her dad at an early age has helped her views on growing older: “I love ‘pretty’ as much as anybody, but if that’s all there is as a culture, we’re screwed. I think you have to be as objective about that as possible and say, ‘There is nothing that serves my soul in wondering how crow’s feet are going to affect my life.’ It’s something to be resisted. Ageing is going to happen and it should. My father died at 31, so to me ageing is extremely preferable to the alternative, which is not ageing. Every year I get past 31, I think, ‘Thank God.’ It’s a gift to be able to go, ‘I look different, that means I’m not dead!'”

On her thoughts on having another child: “There’s absolutely part of me that goes, ‘I’d love to have a baby in the relationship I’m in, and have that experience when the relationship’s really good and exclusive,’ but I’m just not sure. At some point the decision will be made for me, when my ovaries dry up and die. We’ll see. There’s nothing that makes me go, ‘And now I must have triplets!'”

Kate on beauty: ‘I feel like beauty is a gift that you have for a while, and you enjoy the hell out of it while you have it. And if you’re lucky enough to have a daughter and you give it to her, you enjoy the fact she has it. My mother was always very, very beautiful – she still is, in her sixties. I’m sure she feels, “Wouldn’t it be nice if my neck did this?” but not to the degree of cutting parts of herself odd and dragging them behind her ears. I feel very similar. I much prefer how my mother looks to the people I see here [in Los Angeles] with wind-tunnel face.’

On not losing weight after giving birth to her daughter: ‘There’s an obsessional hatred of normal human processes. Pregnancy changes a woman’s body and it should. It isn’t normal to not look like you’ve had a baby immediately after you’ve had a baby. I was gigantic after I had Lily – I put on a good 3 ½ stone, and it didn’t go ‘til I stopped breast feeding… I was lucky that Britain wasn’t so paparazzi-orientated [then]. I was allowed to get on with it and enjoy my baby – and figure out what being a mother was all about instead of worrying about [fitting into] my f**king jeans.’

[Via The Mail & Celeb Gossip]

I love what she says about NOT losing weight after her pregnancy. Kate actually does seem to be reasonable and rather awesome about what kind of image and life lessons she’s giving to her daughter – and Lily is 13 years old, and probably at that age when she’s looking for signs of hypocrisy in her parents.

Now… all of that being said, I think Kate looks kind of tweaked in these Glamour photos. Maybe it’s just Photoshop, though.

Photos courtesy of Glamour UK, Maxim.

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33 Responses to “Kate Beckinsale on body image: “Pregnancy changes a woman’s body & it should””

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  1. Shelly says:

    They photoshopped her into Eva Longoria in that cover pic. Tragedy, because she is MUCH prettier than Eva.

    • brin says:

      Right?! When I first saw the Glamour cover I thought it was Eva Longoria! Kate should sue!

    • Carolyn says:

      Yes! How did this cover get approved. If the heading didn’t name Kate I too would have thought it Eva. Kate is stunning…what the heck?

    • KK says:

      I thought Eva Longoria too but with a longer peanut head.

    • KK says:

      I gained about 40-50 lbs. and it took me about 2 yrs. to drop baby weight. I’m too lazy for the gym but I am now back to under 120 (I’m petite!) just from being active with my child & the neighborhood kids. I know a mom who would weight her 18 month old twins and laugh that she was giving them “weight issues like mommy”. I could not imagine doing this to my child now, let alone at 18 months when they are just learning about the world.

      • Bodhi says:

        Its so wonderful to know that I’m not alone in this. Except that I do work out. The weight just isn’t coming off. But the women in my family are notoriously slow to lose baby weight. Damn genetics!

      • yo momma says:

        i really dont understand this pressure for women to “lose weight” after having a baby. women seem to be under constant pressure to be thin and even having a child doesnt cut them any slack.

        i dont see men under this sort of pressure and its not like they have child birth as an excuse (and apparently its easier for them to lose weight then women so i really dont get this double standard!)

  2. amurph says:

    I had wanted to comment on this in the Hilary Duff article but Kate said it much better with this: ‘I was allowed to get on with it and enjoy my baby – and figure out what being a mother was all about instead of worrying about [fitting into] my f**king jeans.’

    Completely. 100%. My sister-in-law struggled with this – she felt she had to lose the weight so quickly and was devastated when her body didn’t go back to the way it had been pre-preggers. She was a small thin thing anyway but she still has a tummy. As I told her, I highly doubt my brother or my niece care that her tummy is softer than before.

    • Meg says:

      Absolutely! And the fact that Kate’s been open about having body issues in the past, it’s lovely to see her be more accepting of herself.

    • DreamyK says:

      As a mother with a newborn, your focus is entirely on them, as it should be. It’s frankly unnatural, in my opinion, to have hordes of people helping you lose the weight that your baby actually needs to gain weight via breast feeding.

      Kate wasn’t on my radar before, but she is now. Great message to put out there instead of this dumb a** pillow baby, got my body back in 3 weeks, tripe that is being fed to the media.

      Stop the New Mother Shaming.

  3. lucy2 says:

    That cover doesn’t even look like her. She’s a beautiful woman, why so much photoshop?
    I do think she had a bit of work done a while back, but it worked well for her.

    I never saw the original movie, but the trailer for this looks OK, except for Jessica being in it, I don’t care for her as an actress.

  4. Dominiquew says:

    I’m pretty sure Kate has had a nose job, but she’s not denying having had anything done. Good on her for retaining a bit of perspective and class!

    That cover photo does look massively tweaked though and when I first saw the pic I though it was going to be about how she’s morphing into KK (heaven for-bloody-bid!!)

    • Lauren says:

      Kate never had a nose job. Go look at some of the movies or photo shoots she did when she was in her teens. She has the exact same nose. The only thing she’s had done is dental work, and she admitted to that as well.

      • Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

        I’m not sure, it was a bit more bulbousy in her Much Ado…days.

  5. Jaime says:

    I would have preferred if Kate took a different route with her career. The only movie I like of hers is “Serendipity”. I think she’s lovely, but she really went for the sex-pot male oriented roles, and I feel like she’s had an entire career, and I haven’t seen any of her films. Also, Jessica Biel is never gonna happen. Stop trying to make Jessica Biel happen, Hollywood.

    • hoya_chick says:

      Totally agree about Kate! AND also Kaiser:

      “Remember when everyone hoped he would become the next great dramatic actor?”….Uh no. Who hoped for this? When? Where? He is a terrible actor I’m surprised he still get offered roles. LOL.

  6. GoodCapon says:

    They don’t need to photoshop her, she looks great as it is!!

    And she was really bad-ass in the Underworld series. I think she’ll do fine (this is me not knowing anything about Total Recall)

  7. The Original Mia says:

    Kaiser, the alternative for Melina was KBos, wasn’t it? Yeah…not feeling that at all. So Biel it is!

    Kate has long been a favorite of mine. I, too, loved her in Serendipity, but I also love her Underworld movies. The woman can kick ass. I also appreciate her thoughts on ageing, children and body image. Lily will turn out alright with Kate guiding her.

  8. gloaming says:

    I wish she would stop wearing big hair weaves. Actually I wish everyone would stop wearing them. Way too Kartrashian for my liking.

  9. Jenna says:

    Love Kate…but the movie looks awful.

  10. Sassy says:

    I thought the cover shot was a less made up Kim Kardashian. Photoshop fail.

  11. Kristen says:

    Are those Glamour photos actually of her? I could stare at those all day long and never know that was Kate Beckinsale.

  12. It is ME!! says:

    I love love LOVE the fact that Kate is super smart (studied French and Russian at Oxford, I believe- or was it Cambridge?). She would totally get my saying “Beauty fades, dumb is forever!”

  13. Playlist says:

    “Pregnancy changes a woman’s body and it should”

    The title should read: Photoshop changes a woman’s looks and it shouldn’t.

    Talk about losing your identity! I’m so sick of looking at magazine covers and trying to figure out who it is. Don’t mess with a beautiful woman’s looks. Or anyone’s looks. I wish photo-shopping people’s pictures would just stop. What’s the point of looking at a celebrity’s picture when it’s not really them? Why bother taking the picture to begin with if you are just going to morph them into someone different? What a waste of time for everyone, including the readers. It shouldn’t be unjust to expect to see a normal picture of the person that I am reading about. When did reality become a flaw?

  14. Mouse says:

    I like Kate, but this movie looks awful. I’d be more impressed if she’d take more diverse roles than skintight catsuit wearing ass kicker. Seems like that’s all she’s done since she married that director. It’s very subtle and tasteful, but she has definitely had work done on her face. With the fact that these photos are completely photoshopped (I know everyone does it), talking aging gracefully sounds hypocritical.

  15. Princess Penelope says:

    If you can find it, watch KB as Emma (with Mark String as Knightly). She’s quite brilliant, head and shoulders above Ms. Paltrow.

  16. Princess Penelope says:

    If you can find it, watch KB as Emma (with Mark Strong as Knightly). She’s quite brilliant, head and shoulders above Ms. Paltrow.

  17. Mara says:

    Hollywood suck! Only they talk about their bodies cuz they have no talent in acting anymore ( Jessica Biel and many others who call themselves actresess .

  18. Ari says:

    I remember when it physically hurt to look at Kate she was so beautiful. Now with all this awful photoshopping, its just painfully obvious that no-one can be just their true selves any longer. Its kinda sucky.