Kate Beckinsale Sues ‘Canary Black’ Producers for Negligence and Battery

Kate Beckinsale is suing the producers of her 2024 film Canary Black, Us Weekly can confirm. 

Beckinsale, 51, filed an amended complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 21, per legal documents obtained by Us on Wednesday, June 11. She accuses Anton Entertainment and producer John Zois of negligence, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

The document alleges that Beckinsale “was repeatedly exposed to unsafe and dangerous conditions” while filming the action thriller from late 2022 to early 2023, and as a result, suffered “severe and debilitating injuries, including significant trauma to her left knee.”

The complaint alleges that the actress 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 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.”

Beckinsale’s complaint alleges that producers ignored the red flags and “continued to recklessly and intentionally forge ahead with unsafe filming conditions, forgoing safety to maintain profit margins, and in the process, put [her] in harm’s way.”

Originally, she filed the complaint in December, under the name Jane Doe. Her amended filing reveals emails between Beckinsale’s team and Canary Black producers as well as additional information about her injuries, which included a complex meniscus tear in her left knee. 

“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,” Beckinsale’s agent, Shani Rosenzweig, wrote in an email to Zois.

The agent demanded swift action to address unsafe conditions, adding, “If you’re trying to kill a person, you’re doing a great job.”

Per the complaint, Zois responded, “I don’t know what else to say other than you’re right.” He said “we need to shorten these days,” agreeing that the pace was “not sustainable.”

However, the complaint alleges, “set conditions continued to be dangerous, with production staff routinely pushing [Beckinsale] to shoot for fifteen hour days, and perform dangerous action sequences, without pre-clearing or pre-training.”

In December 2022, Beckinsale injured her knee while filming an action scene. She underwent surgery and the production was delayed two months. She returned to set in February 2023, with a notice from her surgeon that she “could not do running, kicking, diving, or hanging from a harness, among other activities.”

The Canary Black team allegedly “disregarded” the notice and Beckinsale “suffered further injury, including aggravation and exacerbation of her existing injuries, which was entirely avoidable,” per the complaint. 

Us has reached out to reps for Zois and Anton Entertainment for comment.

Canary Black, which dropped on Prime Video in October 2024, stars Beckinsale as Avery Graves, a CIA operative whose husband is kidnapped by terrorists. In order to save her husband, she is tasked with betraying her own country.

When the film was released, Beckinsale took to Instagram and posted multiple photos of injuries she endured from doing her own stunts on the set of the film. Each snap showed off a different injury, revealing various bruises and cuts on her arms, hands, fingers, knees and elbows.