A version of this story on Kate Beckinsale first appeared in the “Dark Horses We Love” feature in The Oscar Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s Magazine.
Several years ago, Kate Beckinsale got what she refers to as “a really odd phone call” from her agency saying that director Whit Stillman wanted her for a movie about Martians. It didn’t happen, but Beckinsale and Stillman did team up for “Love & Friendship,” their first movie since “The Last Days of Disco” in 1998.
The dark comedy set in 18th-century England is based on Jane Austen’s novella “Lady Susan,” which was unpublished in the author’s lifetime; it gives Beckinsale a chance to seize the deliciously devious role of a world-class schemer, a woman who’ll go to any lengths to secure a suitable husband for herself and her daughter.