Movies Kate Beckinsale recalls how 'legends' Keanu Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard saved her from wardrobe malfunction Beckinsale narrowly avoided an embarrassing moment promoting 1993's Much Ado About Nothing. By Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen. EW's editorial guidelines Published on May 30, 2023 07:54PM EDT Keanu Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard once prevented Kate Beckinsale from making much ado about a wardrobe malfunction. Beckinsale shared a photograph of her with the two actors and Denzel Washington snapped while attending her very first Cannes Film Festival in 1993 for Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. In the caption, she recounted her bodysuit malfunction and how Reeves and Leonard held her together on the red carpet. "I had bought the bodysuit in the Sock Shop at the airport and when I got in the car to drive to the premiere with Denzel and Pauletta Washington all the poppers in the crotch popped themselves open and it flipped up like a roller blind," she explained. "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." The real trouble came, however, when it was time for Beckinsale to get out of the car and walk the carpet (and Cannes is notoriously known for their dress codes). "Walked out onto the biggest red carpet of my life and whispered to Keanu and Robert Sean Leonard what had happened," she wrote. "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, but both jumped in to save me no questions asked," she concluded. Kate Beckinsale and Keanu Reeves. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty She posted on Instagram in response to her recent appearance at this year's festival for Pot au Feu, noting in her previous post that she wore scuffed, steel-toed Doc Martens to her first Cannes. The follow-up photo does not include a shot of her shoes, but it came with this hilarious story of her near mishap. Beckinsale made her feature film debut as Hero in the 1993 adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. She stars opposite Leonard as her love, Claudio, and Reeves as the villainous Don John. The film also stars Washington as the noble Don Pedro, Emma Thompson as Hero's feisty cousin Beatrice and Branagh as the egotistical Benedick. Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Related content: Kate Beckinsale shares Rob Lowe throwback postcard: 'Yes I will marry you' Matthew Perry says Keanu Reeves insult will be removed from future editions of memoir Keanu Reeves is thrilled to have a fungicide named after him: 'Thanks, scientist people!'