British
beauty Kate Beckinsale chose to star in vampire movie Underworld to prove
to Hollywood she was more than an English period actress.
Beckinsale was sick of being typecast as an English maiden after
starring in the 1996 TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma and the 1993
Shakespearean movie Much Ado About Nothing.
She says, "This is still a complete riot to me that anyone lets me
be in an action movie. Before I did Underworld, every time I walked into a
room I would think there was a whiff of crumpets and fine china. If the
character was a cop or whatever, it was, 'No, Kate's from England.'
"So I just wanted to do something with a little bit more edge and
then it took off a little bit more than I thought it would."