Kate Beckinsale says journalists are necessary in society and says people would be living in a “police state” without the accountability journalism instigates.

The 41-year-old actress told The Guardian that she has found a newfound respect for the media by playing journalist Simone Ford in new psychological thriller The Face of an Angel, which is inspired by the real life story of Amanda Knox, who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007 and acquitted of the crime on Friday.

“It was weird for me to be playing the journalist but I realised quickly how important it was for my character that people were giving her information. It isn’t just salacious, it isn’t just what she wore in court. And if we don’t have journalists we live in a police state,” she said.

Kate Beckinsale says she has found that actors and journalists are similar in their ability to observe situations and disengage emotionally in order to present details of a story objectively.

Kate Beckinsale on The Face of an Angel: ‘Without journalists, we live in a police state’… http://t.co/0wzpMC4Gw4 pic.twitter.com/xBqViRB2DY

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“I think it’s also true that journalists and actors share some qualities. Say you’re having a terrible argument with your boyfriend and you’re breaking up. For an actor there’s this still slight distance where you’re observing the event, thinking, ‘This is what it looks and feels like to be breaking up with someone,'” she noted.

“I think that journalists have that same ability to step back and see things from a different perspective. That doesn’t necessarily make the journalist an a**ehole, any more than it does the actor,” she added.

Also starring alongside Kate Beckinsale in the film directed by Michael Winterbottom are Daniel Brühl, Cara Delevingne and Genevieve Gaunt.