Kate Beckinsale at the premiere of "Snow Angels" held at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on February 28, 2008.

A story of love lost and found in a small town, the Warner Independent film Snow Angels is a heart-rending portrayal of three couples in various stages of life, searching for connection and meaning. When an unexpected act of violence disrupts the lives of these intertwined couples, it reveals the profound moments in which each realizes how precarious and remarkable life can be.

Kate Beckinsale plays Annie, a young woman who is trying to build a new life for herself and her daughter, after splitting with high school sweetheart Glenn (Sam Rockwell). A man with a troubled past, Glenn hopes to make a new start by getting a job and reconnecting with his family. But, in one shocking moment, that all changes and, for everyone who knows them, nothing will ever be the same.

The 34-year-old British star of the vampire/werewolf thriller Underworld spoke with MediaBlvd Magazine about playing such an emotional, unglamorous role.

MediaBlvd Magazine> How would you describe your character, Annie?

Kate Beckinsale> In the beginning, she’s a woman who is just drowning in her responsibilities. She’s got a job that’s not fulfilling, and she’s solely responsible, physically and financially, for a child. She has a husband who she’s separated from, who is like another child, and is not responsible. She’s responsible for her mother, and she’s very oppressed by her life and feels like she was going to get more out of it than she did. She’s disappointed and struggling. Because she’s busy and overwhelmed, her life is like a treadmill that she can’t get off of. She makes certain choices because she’s so consumed in the next thing, all the time. Then, she finds herself on a really tough journey. Things that are happening to her are going to spoil everything. She’s a single mother, and I’ve been a single mother and been under the same pressures that she’s been under. It’s a very common feeling of loneliness, pressure and responsibility that a lot of people feel. It’s just that Annie’s circumstances ramp up.

MediaBlvd> Did you jump at the chance to take a role that wasn’t glamorous?

Kate> If I like the script, I like the script, especially with a movie like this. And, it is nice to have the first thing about the character not be, “She’s hot. Her butt looks cute.” That makes a nice, refreshing change. But, I just show up and do whatever the role requires. I feel less insecure about looking like shit, seeing as I can do that, just waking up. The whole glamorous thing is puzzling to me. I was monumentally ugly until I was about 15, so I still have that mind-set. It’s always a surprise when I’m told I’m glamorous because I just feel like a sweaty person, most of the time.

MediaBlvd> Was it a tough role because you have a daughter, yourself?

Kate> Yeah, it really was. I actually took my daughter with me to Nova Scotia, and my husband (director Len Wiseman), and my daughter’s father (actor Michael Sheen). It was really nice because it was tough on all of us. Emotionally, we went to some tough places, but I knew I’d get to go home and get into bed with my kid and squeeze her face. I would have had a heart attack, if I’d had to come home to an empty room.

MediaBlvd> Do you go in and out of character on the set, or did you choose to stay in that dark mood?

Kate> It depended on the scene. For some of the scenes, towards the end of the movie, Sam and I would go into our corners, like in a big boxing match. We’d get our little mouth guards out and take a breather, and then come back. There’s not a lot of joking in that because you really want to keep the mood. When there’s you have a great energy, and it’s working, you don’t want to distract from it. It’s very easy to be distracted on a film set. There’s so much going on, and people are running around. But, on the days where it wasn’t really heavy, we had loads of fun. David Gordon Green picked a lot of people who were capable of having a good laugh. That really helped.

MediaBlvd> How was your experience on Whiteout?

Kate> As far from Snow Angels as it’s possible to be, really. I was a federal marshal in a chic fur hat. That’s a Joel Silver movie. There wasn’t an opportunity to go as deeply into the character because the character is from a comic book. The movie is much more external than internal. It was a different kind of experience.

MediaBlvd> Did it help that you had the graphic novel to refer to?

Kate> I’m a big reader, so I’m very happy with the written word. I’m an academic geek who likes reading a lot, so I love books. And, with the graphic novel, it was nice to have extra resources to play with. It helps, every time you can get your hands on anything that gives you a bit more of a clue about what you’re supposed to do. I don’t think actors ever really should know exactly what they’re doing.

MediaBlvd> Who do you play in both Winged Creatures and Nothing But the Truth?

Kate> In Winged Creatures, I play a single mother, who is a waitress in a diner that witnesses a random shooting murder. She becomes affected with post-traumatic stress and starts harming her baby. In Nothing But the Truth, I play a journalist who exposes somebody she knows as a covert CIA operative. She is taken to the grand jury to reveal the source and won’t, so she goes to jail.

MediaBlvd> What was it like, working with writer/director Rod Lurie on Nothing But the Truth?

Kate> It was amazing. I’ve been so lucky. I’ve worked with such great directors this year. Rod is great, fantastic. He is so utterly not possessive about the stuff he writes. That makes you so amazingly respectful of his vision because he is so generous, and he wants you to personalize it and color it in. It’s such a treat. It was a great experience.

MediaBlvd> Would you ever be up for another Underworld sequel?

Kate> What I’d really like, just for women in general, is to do a Bruce Willis and do that when I’m 50. But, I don’t think anyone wants to see my 50-year-old ass.

MediaBlvd> Will you do a cameo in the prequel?

Kate> They’re shooting it right now in New Zealand, so probably not. But, it’s a family movie. My daughter’s dad is the lead, and my husband is producing it, so I feel like we’ve got the family franchise going.

MediaBlvd> Is your daughter showing any signs of following in your footsteps?

Kate> She’s writing 11 novels, at the same time, which I’m really happy about. She’s quite adamant about not wanting to be an actress. But then, she’ll tell her dad that he really ought to make a movie with a little girl in the lead, so I don’t know. I keep telling him he should make a movie with a 34-year-old woman in the lead. Neither of us are having any success, at the moment.

MediaBlvd> It’s so unusual that your ex and your current husband get along. Do you have any secrets for making that work?

Kate> I think I just pick great guys. I love Michael. Michael is fantastic. It shouldn’t necessarily have gone on forever with us, but he is one of my absolutely favorite people, ever. We both felt that it was really important for Lily, our daughter, to have everybody coming from the same place. He loves her, I love her and Len loves her. Everyone’s nice. The guys both get along. I do feel like that’s my major achievement of the last decade. My daughter is totally unscathed and great. I am proud of that.

MediaBlvd> Do you think you’ll ever have more kids?

Kate> I don’t know. It's working pretty well, as it is. It feels like a long age gap. If my daughter wasn’t threatening to leave home if I even thought about it, it would be different. She’s not really into it. We just got another cat.

MediaBlvd> Are you still not driving, even though you live in L.A.?

Kate> God, yes.

MediaBlvd> How do you get around?

Kate> Favors. I’m so happy that my husband is not actually shooting in New Zealand because I’d be stranded. My assistant will drive me. Sometimes, my friends will drive me. It’s a real pain.

I am planning on learning how to drive. It was cute and attractive, when I was 19, but now it’s just become weird. The more cats I get, the more freaky the whole thing is.