Kate Beckinsale was told she'd have to "work out" to secure a part in 'Pearl Harbor'.

Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale

The 42-year-old actress was advised by the film's director Michael Bay that she needed to lose weight to star as Nurse Lt. Evelyn Johnson in the 2001 drama.

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

"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."

And the 'Love & Friendship' star also recalled some of the harsh comments made by Michael during promotion for the film.

Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, she shared: "When we were promoting the film, Michael was asked why he had chosen Ben [Affleck] and Josh [Hartnett]. He said, 'I have worked with Ben before and I love him, and Josh is so manly and a wonderful actor.'

"And 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."

Meanwhile, Kate previously admitted she allowed her love life to dictate the decisions she made in her career when she signed up to star in 'Underworld' because it was being directed by Len Wiseman, her now estranged husband.

She said: "The second we absolutely did because we were just getting married. When he did a movie, he'd be tied up for more than two years, and we weren't ready to have that happen to us. That was 100 percent what that was about.

"I don't regret having done it, but I think I regret it has eclipsed some of the things that feel much more genuinely me. It's slightly taken over - it was running the show a bit, in a way that was surprising to me."

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