Keira Christina Knightley:: The "English rose" of Cinematography
Keira Christina Knightley: The "English rose" of Cinematography
"When I was about 5 I think, I desperately wanted to be a pirate and have the hat and everything."
Keira Christina Knightley
When KeiraKnightley was small, there were two things she knew she would become. One of them was an actress. That worked out pretty good, considering her getting an agent at six, starring in Star Wars at thirteen and Pirates of the Caribbean at seventeen, winning an Oscar nomination for Pride and Prejudice at twenty and another ten years later for The Imitation Game.
For this issue, iPremium decided to take a look at why the actress is so different from most of her celebrity colleagues and what makes her one of the prominent feminists in modern cinema.
Natalie Portman's "Doppelganger"
At the age of three, Keira Knightley told her parents that she wanted to have a personal agent. She obviously did not feel the torment of finding herself in the world of acting. Then, she began starring here and there at the age of 6, taking on minor roles in television shows and commercials. In 1999, she made it into the famous movie Star Wars, where Knightley had an inconspicuous but subsequently crucial role. She played Sabe, a doppelganger of Padmé Amidala played by Natalie Portman. The staff learned to distinguish actresses only by age, and even mothers were surprised at how much the two young talents looked alike.
Knightley had to work hard before becoming recognizable and starting to receive invitations to the main roles. Breakthroughs were her work in the films "Play Like Beckham" and "Pirates of the Caribbean". A role in Pride and Prejudice gave Knightley her first Oscar nomination and finally convinced the casting directors that she was successful at playing historical film characters.
Queen of Transformations
On the screen, Keira Knightley has lived all the iconic eras - from the Middle Ages to the fateful forties - and has always been natural. Many roles required a certain skill from her. "If you want to know what pain is, wear a corset!" - the actress understands the meaning of these words of her heroine from "Pirates of the Caribbean" like no one else. She had to pull her waist and wear bulky wigs more than once. But no matter her look, she always looked organically great.
Attack on Kate Middleton
In 2018, Keira Knightley unexpectedly criticized the Duchess of Cambridge - the ambitious move no one expected. The reason was not trivial - not the "laziness" and not the "luxurious lifestyle" that British taxpayers like to use as arguments in blaming Kate. Knightley claimed that Middleton set the wrong example for women. In her essay "The Weaker Sex" for Scarlett Curtis's book "Feminists Don't Wear Pink," the actress mentioned her daughter Edie, who was born the day before Princess Charlotte, describing how the Duchess posed for photographers shortly after giving birth.
"She was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on," Knightley wrote. According to Knightley, it felt unrealistic and unachievable for a lot of women. She described Middleton's photo opportunities with her new babies as "The face the world wants to see.""
In her essay, Keira Knightley described her experience in detail, recalling pain and blood. "I survived the birth. And after that, am I the weaker sex?" – The actress asked readers. The work turned out to be one of the most cited from the book.
Nervous Breakdown
Keira Knightley talks about her personal life in a very dosed manner. The press learned about her wedding and the birth of two children through reliable yet anonymous sources. The actress explained it in an interview, admitting that she had a nervous breakdown in her youth. It happened after the release of Pirates of the Caribbean, when Kira became recognizable: "I had a nervous breakdown at 22, I took a break for a year. I was diagnosed with PTSD. I took up the treatment seriously. My therapist once said to me: "It's amazing - usually people come to me saying that they are being persecuted, although they are not. And you are the first person with whom this really happens."
During this period, Knightley also experienced panic attacks. She had to go through hypnotherapy to attend the 2008 BAFTA Awards.
Naturality
Keira Knightley has publicly opposed using visual editing enhancements more than once. In 2014, she starred topless for Interview magazine, later telling The Times why this photoshoot was of great importance to her. "I've had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it's paparazzi photographers or for film posters," she told The Times UK. "That [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: 'Okay, I'm fine doing the topless shot so long as you don't make them any bigger or retouch.' Because it does feel important to say it really doesn't matter what shape you are."
Prior to that, she publicly criticized the poster for the movie "King Arthur", where her breasts were visually enlarged without her consent. Unfortunately, she found out about this after the shooting was made public.