September 2010 By PhilipBerk
If you asked Kate Beckinsale why she never married Michael Sheen, the father of her eleven year old daughter, she’d tell you point blank, “Because he wouldn’t have me.”
It was her mother, actually, who fancied the match.
As Kate tells it, “I was about to do my first play. I had done Much Ado About Nothing and a bunch of movies and I was asked to do The Seagull. At the time Michael had just finished playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and was being feted as the greatest actor of his generation for his Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger. I was nervous because I had never done a play before. I didn’t think anyone would be able to hear me. I wasn’t classically trained. And all this time my mother kept cutting out articles about him saying he was the greatest thing ever. I was unimpressed and thought, if we ever meet I would hate him. But as soon as I saw him I knew I was done. I was like, ‘Oh, God, that’s finished. I’m not going to kiss anyone else ever again, and then I became an actress and kiss everybody all the time.”
So it was love at first sight?
“As soon as he came in the room I knew exactly. And it was odd because we almost met twenty times before we actually did meet. Perhaps we weren’t ready for each other until that day. I believe there’s something guiding us along. I’m quite romantic in that way”.
What was there about Michael she found so irresistible?
“He’s an amazingly talented actor, and it’s very attractive to be with somebody who’s incredibly talented. He’s super intelligent, and what binds us together is we agree on all the big things. We’re very honest with each other, and that makes for a few arguments a week, but I think that’s healthy.”
What kept them from tying the knot?
“I spent our first three years whenever there was a beautiful sunset asking him, ‘Is there something you want to say to me?’ And he would say, ‘Um I think the cat litter tray needs changing.”
Did she finally give up?
“Actually I asked him just the other day. I must say the baby was a little bit of a surprise. I had just finished Brokedown Palace where I was supposed to be in a Bangkok jail. That whole getting out of prison thing can be potent, and people quite often find themselves pregnant afterwards. Which is what happened to me. We were very pleased about it, but it wasn’t in our time scheme, and after going sleepless for a couple of years, any thought of table settings and napkins totally floored me. So we put it off a bit. “
“But I did ask him recently. (That was 2002 before she met and married her Underworld director, Len Wiseman.) I said, ‘People keep asking me why aren’t we married and he said, ‘Well, because every time I am about to propose, you do something annoying.’ I guess I haven’t been not annoying enough in so many years. However, two weeks in Hawaii, with both sets of grandparents here to babysit, has helped very much. We were able to spend time together. I didn’t do anything irritating the entire holiday so I’ll keep you posted. He looks like he might. He looks like he’s brewing something. I just hope it isn’t gas.”
Did their relationship changed with the arrival of daughter Lily?
“I think Lily changed everything for the better. Having a child for me was a brilliant and wonderful and shocking thing. The first year you’re having a big love affair with your baby and your partner kind of gradually pulls you out of the bubble a little bit. So we’re a lot closer and thank God we don’t have too many fights over parenting.”
What kind of father is he?
“He’s an amazing father. When we were in Hawaii for Pearl Harbor junket, he was there taking care of her.”
And is he romantic?
“He’s a good, proper Welshman. They have that Celtic kind of romance running through their veins constantly. Apparently it can shift into alcoholism, but it hasn’t so far. I remember getting really anxious once. I had drunk too much coffee and was convinced I was going to have a heart attack and die, and he promised me he would chase me into the Underworld and get me and bring me back. That’s the kind of man he is. I believed him. If anyone is capable of doing that it would be Michael.”
At his press conference for the third of Peter Morgan’s Tony Blair trilogy The Special Relationship, I suggest to Michael Sheen that if Peter runs out of ideas he might tackle his courtship of Kate Beckinsale. He laughs.
Michael has come a long way from being Kate’s partner and the mother of their daughter to one of the most versatile actors working today.
Think Tony Blair, Frost Nixon, The Damned United, The Twilight saga.