Kate Beckinsale denies 'protective' Ben Affleck was mystery toxic co-star who was 'rough with her' on set

Kate Beckinsale came to the defense of Ben Affleck after getting candid about a mystery 'drunk' co-star who had been 'rough with her' on set in the past. 

The Underworld actress, 51, recently spoke out about the 'toxic' environment while working on the 2001 film Pearl Harbor in the wake of Blake Lively's lawsuit against Justin Baldoni. 

She told her followers in an Instagram video shared on Monday that she had been 'ostracized' for speaking out on the incident — and reflected on other harrowing experiences she's had in the industry. 

Some social media users jumped to the comment section to speculate that Kate could have been talking about Affleck — who was one of the leading stars in Michael Bay's war drama. 

However, Beckinsale quickly shut down the claims by responding to a fan who wrote, 'Affleck maybe the drunk?' 

She replied, 'Ben Affleck protected me on an extremely toxic film set and could not have behaved more respectably.' 

'I am not going to go into any more specific detail on who it was or wasn't because frankly the most problematic part has actually not been the actors, it has been that reporting a problem or an abuse has resulted in a greater punishment than one could ever imagine.' 

She continued, 'That's the point — everybody says why didn't you tell someone well on the whole we have.' 

'We have told our agents or managers and the head of the studio and this has usually also been witnessed by 30 to 100 people.'

Kate then shared, 'In one particular incident when the actor was so rough with me that he destroyed part of my costume and ripped my wig in half not to say covered me in bruises, winded me and scared me half to death.' 

'Everybody was incredibly concerned,' Beckinsale added. 'Shut the set down for several hours and was really worried and upset.' 

'As soon as I called the head of the studio actually urged by my mother to do so because my instinct was not too.' 

The actress said when she reached out and 'complained' about the incident, 'I was punished, ostracized and could not have wished harder I hadn't said anything which is just, not right on the entire reason I made this video in the first place.' 

Other Instagram followers began to speculate the Colin Farrell may have been the mystery actor she had mentioned in the lengthy reel. 

Beckinsale and Farrell had worked together on the 2012 action film, Total Recall - which was a remake of the 1990 movie of the same name. 

A fan commented, 'Sounds like you're talking about colin Farrell,' and Kate replied, 'I emphatically am not.' 

In the clip, the star detailed her own experiences in the industry, where she said that Blake's lawsuit has highlighted what really goes on behind-the-scenes in Hollywood and said she is grateful to the star for speaking out.

Speaking about one of her traumatic experiences, Kate said she was told by a publicist that she would 'be sued' if she didn't turn up to a photoshoot.

She said: 'I was forced by a publicist, that I was employing, to do a photo shoot the day after I had a miscarriage.'

'I said, "I can't. I'm bleeding. I don't want to go and change my clothes in front of people I don't know and do a photo shoot. I'm bleeding out a miscarriage."'

Beckinsale then claimed that the publicist had told her, 'You'll have to, or you'll be sued.' 

She also revealed she was once labelled a 'c*** and a b****' because she complained when she had to wait six hours for her 'drunk co-star' to turn up to work.

On another experience, Kate said she was forced onto a strict diet on two separate movies where she lost her period twice.

She added: 'I was put on such a strict diet-and-exercise program on one movie that I lost my periods altogether — that's happened twice.'

Back in 2016, Beckinsale recalled director Michael Bay's past comments about her appearance while on The Graham Norton Show, per Vanity Fair.   

'I don't think I fit the type of actress Michael Bay had met before. I think he was baffled by me because my boobs weren't bigger than my head and I wasn't blonde,' the star said. 

'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. And I just didn't understand why a 1940s nurse would do that.' 

The actress added, '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."' 

'Then when he was asked about me, he'd say, "Kate wasn't so attractive that she would alienate the female audience." He kept saying it everywhere we went, and we went to a lot of places.'

Kate insisted she has been 'gaslit and made to feel like I was a problem, blamed and ostracized' within the industry.

The star claimed she has about '47 million stories' similar to the experiences she shared following her days on movie sets.

She urged: 'I'm grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting that this is not an archaic problem that no one's facing — this is continuing.'

'And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you. And I'm sure that's the case in other industries as well, and it's just got to stop.'

Alongside the long video, Kate stressed in her caption: 'Everyone in EVERY industry should be taken seriously and not punished when something egregious happens to them at work.'

'And the difference, I suppose, in our industry is that it becomes something that is played out in the public sphere.'

She added, And that can be very very hard to take, and because it is so public and so globally public, and very quickly becomes clickbait, it can also destroy someone's livelihood, mental health and reputation and that can be very difficult to recover from.'

'I'm not trying to say 'wah poor actresses we all have it so difficult'- but I think this is a problem that affects every industry, it's just that it's a little bit more visible in ours.'

'And I don't want our younger generation of actresses to be facing all the same things as we all do and did, but they have it even worse because of social media and how that can be weaponized to a literally nuclear level, designed to eviscerate.'

Kate continued, 'And it is very, very, very easy to foment hatred against actresses, as was seen in the transcripts of conversations full of repulsively between the publicists and crisis team involved in this case.'

'Complaining about abuse should not beget more abuse ,particularly at work where there should be inviolable safeguarding in place.'

'And it should not be expected of women who have been harmed, insulted, hurt, shamed or in any other way abused (mostly with at least 100 witnesses)to have to be "one of the boys" and take it on the chin or face retribution for having been abused in the first place.'

The actress shared that she doesn't, 'want anybody, male or female who has a legitimate complaint to then have that weaponized against them in any industry, anywhere.'

'And I mention this in association with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni because our industry makes things more visible due to the press and the public getting deliberately involved and led towards an opinion they don't realize is deliberate.'

Kate concluded with, 'There are far too many casualties of this, many of whom I know personally, and it really falls to both men and women in our industry to be part of stamping this out for good. Also, yes, I am covered in cat hairs.' 

Last week, Blake filed a legal complaint against Justin, alleging he sexually harassed her on the set of their film It Ends With Us before orchestrating a smear campaign against her with his publicists after she complained about his alleged behavior.

In Blake's legal complaint — which typically predates a formal lawsuit — she accused Justin of sexually harassing her during production of the motion picture in multiple ways.

Lively said in the legal complaint that Justin had barged into her trailer as she was breastfeeding her child; spoke about his past addiction to adult films; spoke about past sexual experiences with non-consensual implications; and pried her about details of her 'intimate life.' 

Baldoni has since denied all of the claims against him in Blake's legal filing. 

Most recently, the Gossip Girl alum filed another lawsuit against the actor on New Year's Eve and her attorneys told DailyMail.com that she has faced 'further retaliation and attacks' since going public with her allegations against Justin.