Keira Knightley Says ‘I Was Seen as S—‘ Due to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘Taken Down Publicly’; She Won’t Do More Franchises: ‘You Have No Control’ Over ‘What You’re Filming’
Keira Knightley said in an interview with The Times of London that she has erased from her memory the “public shaming” she endured from the press amid her breakout during the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy. The Oscar nominee was just 17 years old when she debuted as Elizabeth Swann in 2003’s “Curse of the Black Pearl.” Two “Pirates” sequels followed: 2006’s “Dead Man’s Chest” and 2007’s “At World’s End.”
The “Pirates” franchise was enormously successful, with “Dead Man’s Chest” setting records at the time for fastest movie to gross $1 billion worldwide and becoming the third highest-grossing film in history. But it also led to the tabloid press hounding Knightley and rampant speculation from the media that she was suffering from an eating disorder due to her thin frame.
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“In that classic trauma way I don’t remember it,” Knightley told The Times. “There’s been a complete delete, and then some things will come up and I’ll suddenly have a very bodily memory of it because, ultimately, it’s public shaming, isn’t it? It’s obviously part of my psyche, given how young I was when it happened. I’ve been made around it.”
Knightley said she was “unbelievably lucky” to have “an incredibly loving” support system of family, friends and “lovely boyfriends” to help her offset the press’ bullying. But the actor still had to contend with questions about weight during interviews. In some cases, interviewers brought up the topic by asking about other actors.
“I remember viscerally one of the Olsen twins had anorexia, and she went into a clinic,” Knightley said. “I remember being asked about it on a press tour, like it was a joke. She was meant to be shamed for seeking help for anorexia. I remember sitting there just being like, ‘Wow, this is wild.’ Can you imagine? That made me really emotional. That’s not even about me, it’s about her. I still can’t bear it.”
Knightley’s career would go on to include acclaimed prestige dramas such as “Atonement” and “Pride and Prejudice,” the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress.
“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” Knightley said about the “Pirates” franchise. “I was seen as shit because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for. They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”
When asked about the possibility of her starring in a Hollywood franchise again, Knightley shut it down by saying: “The hours are insane. It’s years of your life. You have no control over where you’re filming, how long you’re filming, what you’re filming.”
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar U.K. last year, Knightley said playing an object of desire like Elizabeth Swann at such a young age left her feeling “stuck” and “constrained” in Hollywood.
“[Elizabeth Swann] was the object of everybody’s lust,” Knightley continued. “Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fight in her. But it was interesting coming from being really tomboyish to getting projected as quite the opposite. I felt very constrained. I felt very stuck. So the roles afterwards were about trying to break out of that…I didn’t have a sense of how to articulate it. It very much felt like I was caged in a thing I didn’t understand.”
Knightley next stars in the Netflix spy thriller “Black Doves,” streaming Dec. 5. Head over to The Times’ website to read her interview in its entirety.
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