As a curvaceous vampire huntress in the "Underworld" films, she was the best friend black latex ever had. She captivated Howard Hughes in "The Aviator," terrified audiences in "Vacancy," added valiant romantic interest to "Pearl Harbor" and traded quips with Adam Sandler in "Click."

Oxford-educated Kate Beckinsale, born to two longtime British TV actors, has established herself as a versatile leading lady, hired by filmmakers as diverse as Michael Bay and Martin Scorsese.

Beckinsale, who began her film career in emotionally challenging independent films before her exuberant, gutsy work in "Underworld" and its sequel proved her bankable, returns to her roots in her current film, "Snow Angels," now playing in limited release. Playing a waitress in an economically depressed Rust Belt town, saddled with a clinging ex (Sam Rockwell) and a 4-year-old she is ill-equipped to raise, Beckinsale spent weeks as a character in traumatic emotional pain.

That's exactly the kind of role she's been waiting to play for years, she said.

Adding to the appeal was director David Gordon Green, a rising star among Southern regional filmmakers, and co-star Rockwell ("Charlie's Angels"). The actors share tempestuous scenes as a divorced couple teetering on the brink of violence.

Green "loves to improvise, so I think by the end of the movie we had got to a point where we would start the tape and no one knew where it was going to go. And that was really thrilling. ... I wasn't sure at the end of some of the scenes whether Sam and I were going to kill each other. It was an amazing moment and you really did feel genuine panic. ... As an actor, that's exactly what you want, to feel dangerous while you're doing it."

In one painful scene, Beckinsale proved beyond question her willingness to walk the walk. The film, shot in wintry Halifax, Nova Scotia, required her to perform a long trek through snowbound woods in bare feet.

"Let me tell you, those scenes of me barefoot on the snow were real, and there were no foot doubles involved. My toes were blue for an eternity. But some of the most exciting moments in my whole career were in some of those scenes. It's really what you hope for every time you do a job."