Kate Beckinsale who’s had roles in “Pearl Harbor,” “Serendipity,” and the “Underworld” franchise, revealed in an interview with Howard Stern that she has a high IQ but that she thinks it may have “handicapped” her career in Tinseltown.
The actress revealed her mother had her IQ tested as a young child, adding that it was “very high”
“I think she had me tested because very bright children are near unbearable,” Beckinsale said.
Later during the interview, Beckinsale called her mother who confirmed that her IQ test score was, in fact, 152.
According to Healthline, the average person has an IQ between 85 and 115. Beckinsale’s score of 152 places her in the top 1% of the population, meaning she is considered “highly gifted.”
“I wish I had an IQ of 152,” Stern replied, to which Beckinsale said, “You don’t.”
“Every single doctor, every single person I’ve ever come across has said, ‘You’d be so much happier if you were 30 percent less smart,’” she said. “It’s no good to me, though. It’s really not helpful to me in my career. I just think it might have been a handicap actually.”
Later Stern joked that Beckinsale’s high IQ must also negatively affect her dating life, to which she responded: “I’ve always found I can forgive an awful lot if somebody’s funny. So, there’s a certain degree of intelligence in somebody funny that I’m able to mess with.”
Beckinsale studied French and Russian literature at Oxford before she dropped out to properly pursue her career in acting. The London-born beauty — who still speaks fluent Russian — relocated to the US in the late 1990s.
