HOLLYWOOD -- It took Adam Sandler to coax Kate Beckinsale away from the dark side.

The horror flick Underworld, its sequel Underworld: Evolution and Van Helsing have made Beckinsale, 32, an international star.

In Click, the Sandler comedy that opens Friday, Beckinsale plays the comedian's wife. "I resisted doing this kind of comedy for most of my career, but I saw Click as a possibility to return to my roots," says Beckinsale referring to her father, British comedian Richard Beckinsale. "Comedy was a very personal thing for me because I grew up with it. In England, my father had been a very well-known comedy actor. I was attracted to comedy but I also tried to steer clear of it, not wanting to tread on anyone else's patch. I wanted to be on my own patch."

Beckinsale's father died of a heart attack at age 32, the same age she was when she started filming Click.

"Finding myself reaching 32 and actually being in a comedy was a very liberating moment for me. This experience has given me the confidence to try another comedy and hopefully soon."

The first thing Beckinsale learned about being in a Sandler flick is "there are a lot of fart jokes but everything is done in the spirit of such great fun it's not offensive."

She admits she was a little leery about appearing in Click.

"I really did think I might just be this sort of roaming pair of breasts in a boys' movie with everyone watching sports and just tolerating me.

"I thought even my bending over would turn into an event but it was never like that. Everyone was so respectful. It wasn't anything like I expected."

She says she "loved playing Adam's wife probably because I didn't have to take him home and didn't have to yell at him for running off and playing golf.

"That kind of stuff about him would probably bug me but our movie marriage was blissful and I was really kind of sad when it was over."

There was a recent flurry of stories that Beckinsale's two-year marriage to director Len Wiseman was on the rocks.

"It's my fault. I jokingly said because we took up residence in Los Angeles our marriage was doomed. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Beckinsale met Wiseman when he directed her and her boyfriend of seven years, Michael Sheen, in Underworld.

She has an seven-year-old daughter Lily from her relationship with Sheen.

"Lily loved being on the set of Click. She loved Adam. She's decided he's a relative. I was bummed out when the film ended. It was like having to leave summer camp and no one invited me to the next Hanukkah celebration."

In Click, Beckinsale has several simulated sex scenes with Sandler. She says climbing under the sheets with Sandler was a breeze after having done the nude sex scenes with Scott Speedman in Underworld: Evolution.

Those scenes were directed by Wiseman. "Len choreographed those scenes for Scott and I. We were just doing what we were told. No improvising. It was a lot more difficult on Scott."

Plans are in the works for a third Underworld film but Beckinsale is certain she won't be on set.

"The third film was always envisioned as a prequel so the action will happen before my character was introduced. I won't even have been a vampire when that movie takes place."

In Click, Sandler's character gets a universal remote that allows him to control every aspect of his life.

He can fast forward, pause or revisit events.

Asked how she would use one, Beckinsale laughs and exclaims: "God, I'm British. It's all been such abject misery that I wouldn't want to rewind. I'm a mother of a seven year old.

"I think I'd like to pause my life occasionally and just catch my breath."


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