Why is Kate Beckinsale suing Canary Black producers? Lawsuit over alleged battery and negligence explored

Actress Kate Beckinsale is suing the producers of the 2024 thriller Canary Black. The complaint was initially lodged in December 2024, and listed her name as Jane Doe.

According to a report by Us Weekly, on May 21, 2025, the actress filed a revised complaint at the Los Angeles Superior Court. However, this time, she included email conversations between her team and the officials, listed as Defendants.

Kate Beckinsale's suit was filed against producer John Zois and Anton Entertainment, accusing them of causing her mental anguish, physical harm, and dereliction. A section of the complaint reads:

"Ms. Beckinsale and her team repeatedly raised red flags regarding unsafe conditions on and off set to Defendants, including long, dangerous set days, often lasting fifteen hours, inadequate equipment and medical personnel."

These amenities were:

"To help manage the high physical workload and recover from the exertion off set, and failure to adequately inform Ms. Beckinsale of what stunts she was expected to perform until often the moment she had to perform it."

The document stated that during the filming of the action thriller from late 2022 to early 2023, Kate Beckinsale faced unsafe and risky conditions, which led to serious injuries, particularly major trauma to her left knee.

The complaint claimed that the filming conditions remained unsafe, with crew members often pressuring Beckinsale to work extremely long days, up to fifteen hours.

She was made to take part in risky action scenes without proper preparation or training. It also stated that the producers overlooked warning signs and moved forward with dangerous practices to protect profits, putting her safety at risk.

What did Kate Beckinsale’s agent write to the producer?

Following her knee surgery, Kate Beckinsale resumed work in February 2023. Her doctor had advised against physically demanding activities such as running or using a harness.

However, the production team reportedly ignored these instructions, leading to her injuries getting worse. The complaint said it could have been prevented.

Kate Beckinsale’s agent reportedly urged the team to act quickly, criticizing the situation as life-threatening. In one of the emails to the producer, the actress’ agent, Shani Rosenzweig, stated:

“No one is actually taking real action to put a plan in place to fix this situation so it never happens again… [Beckinsale] keeps showing up to set for her call time and everyone around her has been made aware it’s going to be a 15 hour [or more] day except for her.”

In response, Zois admitted the concerns were valid, agreeing that the work schedule needed to be reduced because it wasn’t manageable. One of the scenes from the movie involved an actor pushing Kate Beckinsale against a wall. As per her complaint, she raised the risks of performing such a stunt.

The court papers mentioned:

“Ms. Beckinsale complained that the scene did not seem safe, and that the throwing of her into the wall was too hard and too dangerous. Notwithstanding the complaints by Ms. Beckinsale, there were numerous takes of this dangerous scene.”

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Kate Beckinsale had previously expressed appreciation for Blake Lively's lawsuit. She said that when someone speaks up, a system often kicks in to completely tear them down, which she believed likely happened in other industries, too. She emphasized that this kind of behavior needed to end.

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