‘Canary Black’ Star Kate Beckinsale Sues Film’s Producers For “Negligence, Intentional Infliction Of Emotional Distress, And Battery”
One of Kate Beckinsale’s worst-received action movies is receiving unexpected backlash – from the actress herself who starred in it and is now pursuing legal action.
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Beckinsale hit the producers of the recent dud, Canary Black, with a lawsuit over negligence toward an injury she suffered, but that’s only the beginning. Puck first obtained the story which they call “boundary-breaking.” Entertainment Weekly shared the details of Beckinsale’s complaint once she was named publicly.
Her complaint claims, “Ms. Beckinsale and her team repeatedly raised red flags regarding unsafe conditions on and off set to Defendants, including long, dangerous set days, often lasting fifteen hours, inadequate equipment and medical personnel to help manage the high physical workload and recover from the exertion off set, and failure to adequately inform Ms. Beckinsale of what stunts she was expected to perform until often the moment she had to perform it.”
Allegedly, repeated concerns were ignored and producers “continued to recklessly and intentionally forge ahead with unsafe filming conditions, forgoing safety to maintain profit margins, and in the process, put Ms. Beckinsale in harm’s way.”
Her agent Shani Rosenzweig reached out to producer John Zois in an email, one of several alleged communications, to address the issues. “No one is actually taking real action to put a plan in place to fix this situation so it never happens again,” wrote Rosenzweig. “[Ms. Beckinsale] keeps showing up to set for her call time and everyone around her has been made aware it’s going to be a 15 hour [or more] day except for her.”
The email added, “If you’re trying to kill a person, you’re doing a great job.” Responding with “I don’t know what else to say other than you’re right,” Zois agreed to shorten “unsustainable” production days, but problems and long hours persisted according to Beckinsale’s lawyers.
They claim that “set conditions continued to be dangerous,” and “production staff routinely pushing Ms. Beckinsale to shoot for fifteen hour days, and perform dangerous action sequences, without pre-clearing or pre-training.”
Beckinsale would incur a torn meniscus in her left knee that required surgery. Production was halted for months going into 2023, and doctors warned the actress not to resume strenuous activity that included the running, jumping, kicking, and harness-assisted stunts. According to her complaint, she and her doctors were ignored and the injury was exacerbated by further “coerced” and “unsafe action sequences.”
Zois and the production company Anton Entertainment did not respond to EW when reached for comment. Their film with Beckinsale, Canary Black, earned an 18% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, though that is based on 11 reviews. Audiences were more forgiving but still only give it 33%.
The film was a posthumous release, and second to last film, in the career of Beckinsale’s co-star Ray Stevenson.
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