Thirteen years after the critically acclaimed film Nothing But the Truth, actress Kate Beckinsale is stepping into the shoes of a journalist again with the dark-comedy series Guilty Party. Beckinsale plays Beth Burgess, an award-winning journalist who is discredited after she is accused of falsifying a quote. She then takes on the investigation of a case of a wrongly accused Black woman to salvage her reputation. Guilty Party, created by Dead To Me and New Girl fame writer Rebecca Addelman, is a murder mystery, satire and thriller, all rolled into one.
In a roundtable discussion to promote Guilty Party, Beckinsale opened up about her character, the experience of playing a journalist and her experience shooting the film amid the pandemic. Beckinsale opened up about playing a complex character with shades of grey. “What attracted me was that she is in a free-fall moment in her life where nothing is going well. She doesn’t know how to get herself out of that and is desperate. She might be myopic and ignorant about some things and she might be hot-headed, but I think she is essentially a decent person. The way she reacts impulsively is like a child reacting to things, and I liked that about her. But she doesn’t have a lot of help. Even if she has had therapy it hasn’t been really good. So she doesn’t know herself. I think she’s at the crisis point in her life where everything feels very pressured. So that’s when I think she finds herself doing things that she wouldn’t normally do.”
The actress also opened up about preparing to play a journalist on the show. She said, “She’s American so I had to do some dialect work. We weren’t able to visit any offices because it was in the middle of a pandemic. So the preparation was mostly about reading various books. I found John Ronson’s book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, which was really helpful because there was a story about a journalist there who was shamed for having not used a quote. Rebecca also suggested some books about journalism that were really helpful. I also was lucky to go to the LA Times office a few years ago for another movie (Nothing But the Truth). Because the world was really closed when we did this.”
The other lead character in the show is Toni Plimpton, who is accused of killing and maiming her husband. Toni denies that she was behind the murder and says her incarceration was racially motivated. Beckinsale opened up about Beth and Toni’s bond, and her experience working with actress Jules Latimer. “That was so appealing to see the relationship between two women who would have never ordinarily met or become friends. They have nothing in common and wouldn’t probably like each other. For them to be thrust together to have to take on board each other’s experiences, is actually very touching even though it is within a dark comedy format. My scenes with Jules are very special and I’m really excited about that,” she said.
When the audience meets Beth Burgess on the show, she is going through a very low point in her life and career. When asked if she has faced such moments in her own career, the actress said, “My job is quite different from hers, mainly because I can’t be on the same job forever. She was onto really good things, she had won an award, and she was quite happy staying at that paper. And then she got discredited. I think a lot of what happens to her comes from being very humiliated and shocked. And that’s what has been propelling her. So far I don’t think I have been in that position in my job. Also for actors, the minute a job is finished, we have to find something different. When you become an actor you know the long apprenticeship towards things that you haven’t done before. That’s why we are insane. I think more sensible people get a job and stick to it.”
However, Beckinsale also relates with her character and has empathy for her. “I have not been in that state, but I can certainly relate to doing things more recklessly when I’ve been in more difficult moments in my life. I think she is bright and smart and she has got a lot of things to figure out about her life. She has got a lot of unresolved issues with her parents. I think she is bold and I find her very likeable, even though she does a bunch of unlikeable things. One of the reasons I like her so much is though she is behaving recklessly, she isn’t stupid,” she signed off.
Guilty Party also stars Laurie Davidson, Andre Hyland, Tiya Sircar, Geoff Stults and Alanna Ubach in pivotal roles. The show is streaming on Voot Select.
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