Keira Knightley's dark side

Lily

B.R
Staff member
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For someone who started out as a child actor, Keira Knightley has several memorable roles to her name - Bend It Like Beckham, Domino, Love Actually to name only three. The London-born actress shot to fame with her feisty Elizabeth Swann opposite Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice. Knightely continues to prove her versatility with performances both on stage and in films such as Atonement, The Edge Of Love and The Duchess. In director Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, she plays Ruth whose relationship with Tommy (Andrew Garfield) creates a rift between her life-long friendship with Kathy (Carey Mulligan).

You play Ruth in Never Let Me Go. Had you read Kazuo Ishiguro's novel before getting the part?

I didn't know the book at all. I read the script and thought it was a unique piece. I read the book afterwards, obviously, and found it so quiet and so devastating. So often films are simplistic, and patronise their audiences. It was exciting to be a part of something that goes: "No think."

You had worked with your co-star Carey Mulligan before in Pride & Prejudice (2005). What was it like being reunited on set?

Lovely. One of the big reasons I wanted to do this was the opportunity to work with a friend because it happens so rarely.

You make Mulligan's character cry?

It's horrible, isn't it? I had to say to her after every scene, "I'm just so sorry." She'd say: "It's all right. It's pretend."

She's a very good crier.

She's a brilliant crier! Really. She's on another level. That was the scene where I said to her: "Right, every time I say this word, I want one teardrop to drop out of your right eye." And it was like clockwork. I've never seen anything like it. Actually, no. Sienna Miller can do the same thing. It's astonishing. I love it. I got such a kick out of it.

The director, Mark Romanek, has said that as an actor you like to work from your head. Presumably that means you think about the character first before throwing yourself into it?

I do, I guess. I'm probably very analytical and the projects I've chosen recently have been ones that have challenged my intellect. It's not very difficult to challenge me intellectually! The roles have forced me to empathise with people or with situations that I don't necessarily find easy to empathise with. So I suppose, yes, I like thinking about that, so maybe he's right. Maybe that's my problem as an actor. Maybe I need to work more from my heart. I suspect he'd say that, I don't know. But I love research. I left school at 16. I don't have any formal education after that, so I think it's part of my education, and it sends me off reading in different areas and I enjoy that.

Do you really believe you're not clever?

Sometimes I feel very stupid and sometimes I feel like I'm all right. Normally after days like today doing press I feel incredibly stupid. But I can talk about my dress really well.

Yes, what are you wearing?

[Laughs] I'm wearing Rodarte.

Is it more fun playing nasty characters, such as Ruth, than nice ones?

The complexities are fun. I'm always interested in exploring things that are morally difficult, morally ambiguous, that don't have an easy answer.

How do you square that desire with playing Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean?

Yes, that is difficult. I was 17 when I did the first Pirates and 21 by the time I finished it. It's obviously quite a substantial section of my life and I changed a lot over that period. I think I'd do certain things differently now. I found Pirates very difficult. I really enjoyed some of it. But this [Never Let Me Go] is the kind of stuff that's really fun.

Was there an Elizabeth Swann doll?

I believe so. Yes, it's quite frightening. Very strange. It has my eyebrows. Other than that, I don't think it looked very much like me.

Do you think you look like yourself on screen?

No. On screen you're lit in a certain way. It depends what kind of character you are. If you're playing the beautiful leading lady, you're lit in a very specific way, you're told how to hold your face. When they want you to look stupid, that's a different thing, and that's a lot more freeing. But neither of them are me.

Do you like being successful?

Yes and no. I had success very young. I found that confusing and rather frightening for a long time. I didn't feel I deserved it.

Are people nice when they recognise you in the street?

They weren't for a long time, and that was hard to deal with. People are a lot nicer now. I don't know why.

What would they say to you?

Mostly anorexia things. People get very angry if they see you in a place they don't think you should be, like the pub. I think actors are shadows. They don't exist. The characters don't exist. The make-up is make-up; the clothes are somebody else's. When people see the reality it's incredibly disappointing.

Do you worry about getting older or might it be a release, not having to live up to your looks?

It doesn't frighten me. My looks have been torn to pieces. Yes, I've got parts because of how I look. Pirates was because of the way I looked, completely and others not. I have a funny relationship with it because you have some people going: "That's a beautiful face" and others going, "That's disgusting", and they are very vocal about that.

You're currently on the West End stage in The Children's Hour. What do you like about theatre in comparison to film?

It's alive. You go on stage, and you don't know what character the audience is going to have, and it's almost like improvising with a new person every single night. Film, you're second-guessing an audience because they're not there.

Are you fed-up with being nominated for awards and not winning?

No, I couldn't imagine anything more terrifying than winning because then you'd have to get up and give a speech. I'd be bad at that.

And finally, just to dispel those anorexia rumours, what's your favourite biscuit?

Custard creams. Because you can take them apart and eat the inside bit.

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