Kate Beckinsale Calls 'Total Recall' Fight Scene with Jessica Biel 'Extremely Polite' (Video)

Kate Beckinsale makes bad look so good.

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The English actress, who stars in her first major villainous role in the reboot of the 1990 sci-fi action film Total Recall, says she enjoyed playing the strong, terrifying, lethal killer with amazing fashion sense.

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“I like the fact that she’s just relentless and slightly unhinged and bordering on hysterical a lot of the time,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s really fun to play.”

Beckinsale plays factor worker Douglas Quaid’s (Colin Farrell) wife, Lori, who turns out to be a lethal agent pretending to be Douglas’ significant other in order to keep an eye on him. After Douglas visits a place called Rekall – where new memories can be added to your brain – he discovers that he may be a secret agent whose entire life has been implanted as a false memory.

Once Douglas comes to this realization, Lori reveals herself to be a killer agent and goes on the hunt for Douglas.

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“I don’t think she has any idea she’s a bad guy,” Beckinsale tells THR. “I think she thinks she’s a good guy like all the best villains.  And she’s got that slightly insane quality of not being able to see, necessarily, the big picture.”

Beckinsale gets to fight both Farrell and Jessica Biel in Sony's reboot, which is directed by Beckinsale's real-life husband Len Wiseman. In a particularly impressive scene, Beckinsale and Biel’s characters have a knock down, drag out fight in a moving futuristic elevator.

When asked, Beckinsale wasn’t able to pick a favorite sparring partner. “They were both amazing,” she says.

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“Jessica was probably more civilized,” she adds. “Two women fighting together is an extremely polite situation.”

While it feels like this role was made for Beckinsale, with her energetic action stunt skills and her killer sci-fi fashion, it turns out that she nearly missed the opportunity. When her husband was first casting the project, Beckinsale was already signed up for another film that conflicted time-wise. However, when her other project was moved, she was able to sign up for the role.

When THR spoke to Farrell, he mentioned how strange it was for him to be sharing a love scene with Beckinsale when her husband was watching on set.

But Beckinsale, who also starred in Wiseman’s Underworld films, says that while it doesn’t happen often, the romantic scenes with another man aren't stressful for her.

“I’ve only done it once before with somebody and that was a much more intense love scene,” she says. “So this was just kissing, it was nothing.”

Total Recall, which also stars Bryan Cranston, opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 3.

Email: Rebecca.ford@thr.com; Twitter: @Beccamford

Video by Victor Klaus