British actress Kate Beckinsale used to vet potential suitors by showing them her performance in a safety training video.

Long before she became a movie star, the sexy brunette starred in an industrial film, in which she plays a factory worker who becomes a paraplegic after an accident.

Beckinsale says, "I was probably 17 or 18, and it was a training video about safety.

"I played a factory worker who dreams of becoming a pop star. Then I run down a corridor, skid on some cleaning fluid and become a paraplegic.

"It's fantastically bad. I look terrible, and the whole thing is ghastly. It's one of those things I put every boyfriend through to make sure he can actually handle being with someone who has done something so appalling."

The actress, now married to director Len Wiseman, adds, "It's like telling them I've had a sexually transmitted disease."