Kate Beckinsale Reveals How Keanu Reeves Saved Her From a Red Carpet Wardrobe Malfunction in 1993

Actress Kate Beckinsale was feeling nostalgic about the Cannes Film Festival this weekend and she shared yet another Hollywood story with Keanu Reeves as the chivalrous hero. Over the weekend, Beckinsale shared a photo of herself on the Cannes red carpet, reminiscing in the caption: “Remembering my first time on these steps 30 years ago in scuffed steel toe capped Dr. Martens. Both magical.” She later found a picture of herself at her first Cannes where Reeves helped save her from a wardrobe malfunction.

After many commenters asked for more details, Beckinsale’s mother unearthed a picture from the actress’ first Cannes Film Festival in 1993. It showed Beckinsale standing between Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard, both of whom saved her from embarrassment, she explained. She wrote that underneath her gown, she was wearing a bodysuit that she had bought at the airport on her way to the festival, but that “All the poppers in the crotch popped” on her way there “and it flipped up like a roller blind.” Beckinsale was sharing a car with legendary actors Denzel Washington (also pictured) and Pauletta Washington, and she did not want to make a scene.

“I didn’t feel it was appropriate to go delving around in my undercarriage with all of us in the back of the car so I just quietly panicked,” she joked. “Walked out onto the biggest red carpet of my life and whispered to Keanu and Robert Sean Leonard what had happened. In this picture I am holding the front gusset down and the two of them are holding the back gusset. Absolute legends who may not even have fully understood the physics of what was happening or even heard the word ‘gusset’ before, both jumped in to save me no questions asked.”

Many fans were pleased to hear yet another story where Reeves played the hero for a female colleague, apparently expecting nothing in return. Reeves has developed a reputation for being kind and humble for its own sake, and many people who have worked with him over the years have shared their own stories like this one. In a 2021 profile on Reeves in Esquire, his frequent collaborator Sandra Bullock helped shed some light on this aspect of his legacy. She refuted the rumors that they had dated, but said: “Keanu’s a guy who, I feel like, is friends with every woman he’s ever dated. I don’t think there’s anyone who has something horrible to say about him. So maybe we could have survived. I don’t know. But we didn’t have anything to survive.”

Still, Bullock felt she could understand the attraction to Reeves as well as the reason he maintains a reputation as a nice guy. She said: He’s a listener, and it drives. People. Crazy… When I first met him, I would spend as much time as I could filling a silence, just to feel comfortable. And the more I jibber-jabbered on, the quieter he would get. And I thought, I don’t understand what’s happening! He’s looking at me with eyes of confusion. He’s quiet. Did I say something to offend him? And then a day or two later, he would arrive with a note or a little package, saying, ‘I thought about what you said.’ And he would have his response. How many people do you know like that?”