It’s a unusual phenomenon – widespread in Hollywood – when the factor that brings you probably the most alternatives concurrently rips you to shreds.
Keira Knightley is aware of this all too nicely.
After struggling by the perils of younger stardom compounded by the pressures of being in a franchise as standard as “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the English actress, months away from turning 40, is reflecting on how she dealt with all of it.
JOHNNY DEPP, ORLANDO BLOOM, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: ‘PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN’ CAST 20 YEARS LATER
Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp in a nonetheless from the primary “Pirates of the Caribbean” film. (Photograph 12 / Alamy Inventory Photograph)
“It’s a humorous factor when you might have one thing that was making and breaking you on the identical time,” Knightley instructed The Instances of the “Pirates” franchise. “I used to be seen as s— due to them, and but, as a result of they did so nicely, I used to be given the chance to do the movies that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for.”
Keira Knightley attended the Academy Awards in 2006 as a nominated actress. (Ian West – PA Photos/PA Photos by way of Getty Photos)
In 2005, Knightley, who was 20 on the time, obtained her first Oscar nomination for Finest Actress. She was nominated for her position of Elizabeth Bennet in “Satisfaction and Prejudice.” She was additionally nominated for Finest Supporting Actress in 2014 for her portrayal of Joan Clarke in “The Imitation Sport.”
“They have been probably the most profitable movies I’ll ever be part of, and so they have been the explanation that I used to be taken down publicly,” she continued of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequence, which additionally starred Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. “So that they’re a really confused place in my head.”
“I used to be seen as s— due to them, and but, as a result of they did so nicely, I used to be given the chance to do the movies that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for.”
Johnny Depp, left, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom fronted the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, beginning with “The Curse of the Black Pearl” in 2003. (Eric Charbonneau/WireImage for Disney Photos/Getty Photos)
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In consequence, Knightley stated she wouldn’t work on a franchised challenge once more. “The hours are insane. It’s years of your life, you haven’t any management over the place you’re filming, how lengthy you’re filming, what you’re filming.”
Together with her movie success, there was fixed criticism of her look and general persona. Wanted by paparazzi since she was a young person – she started appearing as a baby and was solely 17 when she started starring within the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies – Knightley shared in 2018 that when she was 22, she suffered a psychological breakdown and had been recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
“In that traditional trauma manner I don’t bear in mind it,” she admitted of that point. “There’s been a whole delete, after which some issues will come up, and I’ll all of the sudden have a really bodily reminiscence of it as a result of, finally, it’s public shaming, isn’t it? It’s clearly a part of my psyche, given how younger I used to be when it occurred. I’ve been made round it.”
Keira Knightley proven attending the world premiere of “Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl” in 2003. (SGranitz/WireImage/Getty Photos)
Knightley was significantly scrutinized about her weight, accused of battling an consuming dysfunction.
“I knew I wasn’t. I knew I used to be consuming,” she stated of the rumors. On the time, different younger starlets have been coping with comparable, but in addition, distinctly completely different circumstances. “I bear in mind viscerally one of many Olsen twins had anorexia, and he or she went right into a clinic,” Knightley stated, referencing Mary-Kate Olsen, who obtained therapy shortly after graduating from highschool in 2004.
“In that traditional trauma manner I don’t bear in mind it.”
Keira Knightley attended the European premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Useless Man’s Chest,” in London. (Ian West – PA Photos/PA Photos by way of Getty Photos)
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“I bear in mind being requested about it on a press tour, prefer it was a joke. She was meant to be shamed for looking for assist for anorexia. I bear in mind sitting there simply being like, ‘Wow, that is wild.’ Are you able to think about?…That made me actually emotional. That’s not even about me, it’s about her. I nonetheless can’t bear it.”
She additionally was conscious about what the media needed from her: a collapse.
“I 100% acknowledged and noticed folks’s careers being shattered as a result of they have been photographed popping out of golf equipment. The cash on my head at that time, if you happen to’d obtained an image of me drunk, was so large,” she remembered. “I wasn’t going to offer the [paparazzi] the satisfaction of taking that away, so I used to be unbelievably straight.”
Keira Knightley stuns on the carpet in March 2023. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Photos)
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Now, as a married mom to 2 younger ladies, Knightley feels as if she has rather more management over her personal narrative.
“I preserve being supplied issues about kids dying or about moms dying. Can’t do it,” she shared. “I’ve been actually shocked up to now few years about what I’ve stated no to. I’ve needed it to be extra pure leisure and perhaps that’s as a result of I’ve wanted that.”