Kate Beckinsale is kicking butt again in this week's thriller Whiteout. While there's no doubt she can handle the bad guys, as evidenced by her Underworld movies, being a working mom is more of a real life struggle.

"She comes with me," Beckinsale said. "She was with us during this. I try to make it as normal a life as I can. I'm a regular working mom, who puts her kid in a bath, which is probably very annoying to Joel [Silver] when I'm like, 'I have to go home now. My daughter needs a bath.' I think she's lucky to be around lots of very nice, creative, sweet people, and have experiences around the world. I don't leave her behind."

Whiteout shows Beckinsale with a trimmed hair bob. In person, she's back to the flowing brunette locks that make the guys go gaga. "I still had long hair on the movie," she revealed. "I just had a very good wig on this movie. I don't really think about my hair that much. I've got a daughter and, if I do anything really radically different, she gets upset. I come in the door, and she goes, 'Ew, you don't look like yourself. You look horrible.' And, my husband tends to do that, too. No, I'm joking. I don't know. I've had it for awhile, so it just feels like myself, really. It's worked for the last 10 years, so I'm sure I'll probably keep it."

Beckinsale still splits her time between America and London. "I've just actually come back from being in London for five months. I was actually homesick, so my daughter and I went back for five months. My daughter went to school there, for a little bit. I went to see some of my relatives. So, I got it out of my system, for a little while. Five months was a good long time. I haven't been able to do that. I've been working so much, I haven't really been able to take a minute to do that, since moving here, six or seven years ago. So, because I was taking a break, it was nice to go home for a bit."

Whiteout opens Friday.

Image © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

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Story/Interview by Fred Topel

Starpulse contributing writer

(Starpulse in Hollywood): Every week, Hollywood's biggest stars are meeting in the hot spots and Starpulse is there.