Kate Beckinsale hits back at IQ 'bragging' claims as she calls out 'dumbing down' culture

Kate Beckinsale has hit back at claims that she had boasted about her high IQ after saying she had found it a disadvantage in Hollywood.

The Underworld star had been asked by Howard Stern during an interview on his SiriusXM radio show in the US what her IQ was after having revealed it had come out as being high when she was tested as a child.

Beckinsale, 48, who attended the University of Oxford, then added that her IQ had caused her some difficulties throughout her Hollywood career, but was targeted by US media outlets after the interview that appeared to accuse her of bragging.

She hit back at the coverage in an Instagram post that included a link to a Grazia article stating that 60 percent of women dumbed down on dates and said that she had been pushed many times for an answer on her IQ score in the interview, eventually being pressurised to call her mother because she couldn't remember it.

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Beckinsale wrote: "Here’s the dilemma: Tell the truth? Refuse to answer the question? Lie? Pretend it was lower? I told the truth and some journalists have been triggered by this.

"Are we really jumping on women for answering a question truthfully about their intelligence or education? Are we really still requiring women to dumb themselves down in order not to offend?"

The actor, who starred in TV thriller The Widow, said that she felt lucky to have had educational experiences where she could learn without worrying about appearing "unfeminine" and also included screenshots of some of the articles that had mocked her.

She added: "When I said it has been a handicap in Hollywood it’s PRECISELY because being female AND having an opinion often has to be quite carefully packaged so as not to be offensive or, as in this case, deliberately twisted into signifying ones perceived superiority or arrogance."

Continuing that she had been "shamed" by magazine articles over mentioning her IQ, she wrote: "This is EXACTLY what I mean by a handicap. I don’t often respond to this sort of bulls*** but it’s really important to me that NO percentage of women let alone 60% (Grazia magazine, 2019) should feel they need to lie or dumb down under ANY circumstances so as not to be a target."

She finished: "Facts: I’ve done some good movies and some s*** movies. I’ve made some good and bad choices in my personal life. I have a really tolerant cat. My IQ is 152 and if that triggers you, @thecut, (despite your 2015 article on Salma Hayek stating the opposite) that’s your problem.

"Also, pick a side. Also,IQ doesn’t actually mean s***. But stop performatively supporting women while pulling crummy s*** like this."

Watch: Kate Beckinsale believes high IQ is 'a handicap' in Hollywood