Kevin Maher
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Nobody wants to talk about Keira Knightley’s body. Not the flock of assistants, stylists and acquaintances who flit about in her wake as she cruises towards a cordoned press corner of Claridge’s Hotel. Not the feisty PR martinets and film company major-domos who’ve organised the day’s interviews to publicise Knightley’s new film, Atonement. And certainly not the cowed line of TV reporters, queueing up for their five-minute burst of platitudinous bites. No, it seems that the 22-year-old Knightley has spent the last year battling the world’s obsession with her body image, even successfully suing a national newspaper over accusations of anorexia, and so an edict has been issued from the highest echelons of media management stating that nobody, BUT NOBODY, must mention the subject of Knightley’s body. Nobody, that is, except for Knightley herself.
“I mean, I’m an actress and it’s a tool, after all,” she says, launching into a lengthy and nuanced explanation of the Knightley body obsession, while sprawled on a quiet secluded couch, far away from prying ears. “It’s pretty much all I’ve got. I’ve got whatever’s in my head, my face and my voice and then there’s my body, and that’s it. And I do trade on that, of course I do.”
So let’s get this straight from the start – Knightley is not anorexic. She bounds into the room like a lightly primped gazelle, has a handshake like a welder and, later, when reaching backwards across the couch for a misplaced bottle of spring water, her delicate black mini-dress (a chain store purchase, fashion fans) rises to reveal two firm walnut-coloured thighs that would make a sprinter proud. She is quick to laugh, darkly witty, fabulously foul-mouthed, and smart enough to realise that in Atonement, at least, her body’s the thing.
The movie is a stunningly precise adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Second World War-era bestseller, and revolves around the childish misinterpretation of adult sexual relations. The narrative is thus ignited by an early pivotal scene where Knightley’s flapper protagonist, Cecilia Tallis, emerges from the family pond in entirely transparent skin-soaked clothing and stands boldly before her would-be paramour Robbie Turner, played by James McAvoy.
The scene speaks of entropic erotic desire, and it spares Knightley no blushes, by exposing to the audience what McEwan calls, “the triangular darkness her knickers were supposed to conceal”. “There are plenty of actresses, and certainly a lot of American actresses, who wouldn’t have done this part because of that,” she says. “But I was very passionate about it, and had to do it no matter what it demanded.”
Atonement reunites Knightley with her Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright. The pair have become something of a professional double-act, with the latter directing the former for the third time recently, in a decadent Paris-set commercial for Chanel (Knightley has succeeded Kate Moss as the face of the fashion giant’s Coco Mademoiselle fragrance). Knightley admits that she has a bond with Wright that is not unprecedented in movie history – he is the Howard Hawks to her Katharine Hepburn, or at least the Scorsese to her De Niro. “He doesn’t make me feel like I’m a pretty face that’s just, sort of, walked in,” she explains. “He actually goes, ‘All right, f***ing what are you bringing to the table? Let’s talk about this!’ ”
She also says, nonetheless, that despite a mature Oscar-tipped turn in Atonement (following hot on the heels of an Oscar-nominated performance in Pride & Prejudice and the box-office domination of her Pirates of the Caribbean movies), she is still riven with professional anxieties. “I seem to have a homing device in me that leads me to absolutely every bad review that I’ve ever received,” she explains. “If I’m sitting in the hairdresser I’ll pick up the one thing that has horrific stuff about me in it. Which in one sense is incredibly difficult, but in the other constantly makes me go, ‘Get better! Get better! Get better!’”
This is definitive Knightley – a curious cocktail of self-deprecation, confidence, and, get this, confident self-deprecation. When I met her first, three years ago, she spoke almost proudly of how the filmmaker John Maybury, who directed her in the psycho-thriller The Jacket, had greeted her with the gambit, “There’s a lot of hype surrounding you at the moment. I’m not sure I believe any of it, and I don’t think you can act.” Today she says that the words still resonate because her performances since then “haven’t exactly been perfect”. And yet she takes succour from the fact that even her accomplished Pride & Prejudice co-star Donald Sutherland is also hampered by self-doubt. “You can only go, ‘All right, well f*** me. If an actor of that stature is saying that he’s not comfortable with his ability, then what right has any 22-year-old, for f*** sake, got to sit here and go, I’m feeling really good about myself. F*** that, it doesn’t happen.”
Knightley, you see, is in for the long haul. Acting is not just in her blood, it’s deeply implicated in her very being. Her mother, for instance, the Scottish playwright Sharman Macdonald, was, in 1984, extremely strapped for cash and decided famously that she couldn’t afford to conceive second child Keira until she sold a play. And what was the name of the play that we have to thank for your existence? “There’s no need to say it in such a sarcastic tone, for f***’s sake! It was called When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout.” And, considering the circumstances, is there any spooky symbiotic connection between the content of the play and the person you’ve become? “Well, it’s got four-year-olds masturbating on a beach.” Nice.
Knightley grew up in Richmond, West London, enthralled by the creative life of her mother and her theatre actor father Will Knightley. She says that, as legend has it, she demanded the services of an agent when she was 3 and began nabbing bit parts in TV shows such as The Bill from the age of 8. She is open about her childhood and says that, yes, she missed out on a “normal” life. “But then again, if you want to pursue an acting career you have to take the opportunities as they’re offered, which is what I did. So I think I would’ve regretted it a f*** of a lot more if I hadn’t said yes to various things.”
She said yes to playing Lara Antipova in the high-profile TV adaptation of Dr Zhivago, which meant abandoning her A-level study at Esher College in Surrey. Her breakthrough role was as a soccer-crazy tomboy in Bend it Like Beckham and next she was cast, crucially, as Elizabeth Swann in the billion-dollar Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The rest is a cataclysmic roll-call of media hysteria that includes Vanity Fair covers, best dressed lists, most desirable actress awards, most glamorous starlet titles, personal trainers, stylish boyfriends (the fashion model Jamie Dornan was one), telephoto pap shots, and an infamous appearance at the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest premiere in a bronze Gucci dress that, if not exactly making her look anorexic, certainly made her look washed-out enough for the world’s press to round on her viciously under the guise of sympathy and concern, and pillory her cruelly for her alleged stick-insect figure.
Which brings us inevitably back to the body. And though we’d never wade straight into the tabloid fixation with anorexia, there are pertinent issues about her image that need to be addressed, and indeed even arise in Atonement.
“Oh I can’t wait to see how you’re going to connect those two together!” she says, with an imperious chuckle.
Well, surely there’s a fine line between the media’s obsession with her body image and her own manipulation of that image on screen. In Atonement, for instance, in that first scene when she emerges from the (Freudian slip) shower . . .
“It’s a pond, actually. The shower’s in the porno version.” Yes, sorry. I got Atonement mixed up with Debbie Does Dallas for a second there.
“It’s all right. It happens.”
Anyway, that scene is predicated on her ostensible nakedness. And the movie itself is predicated on that scene, so how does she shift focus from her body when it’s so, well, out there.
“I know, you’re absolutely right, and the answer is, ‘Don’t take your clothes off!’ But then if I didn’t there would be a whole area of my job that I couldn’t explore. And I can’t sacrifice my job just because it becomes part of this tabloid b*****ks that I have to put up with. In fact they are two completely separate things. There’s me as Keira, who has to deal with this tabloid s***. And probably, yes, if I didn’t do that [scene] then my life would be a lot easier. But then I can’t NOT do my job just because somebody is trying to sell papers.” She pauses and, looking sullen for the first time, adds, “All I can say is that it’s f***ing horrible.”
It’s also a f***ing double standard (see, it’s catching). No one, for instance, ever decries Jude Law for being too short, or Orlando Bloom for being too thin. Instead, objectified wrath is preserved exclusively for home-grown female performers such as Knightley and Kate Winslet. “Yes. I do think that we live with sexism,” says Knightley. “I think that that’s very obvious. It’s a huge issue and I, er, I’m, ah.” She stops herself with a smile, and decides, perhaps for professional reasons, to hold back. “I’m just not going to go into my usual rant about it.”
For the moment, however, sexist conspiracies and tabloid ambushes aside, Planet Knightley looks quite peachy indeed. She’s just finished work on the Dylan Thomas movie The Edge of Love (written by her mother and co-starring Sienna Miller), and is preparing to star in an 18th-century period piece, The Duchess directed by Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy). She’s still dating her Pride & Prejudice co-star Rupert Friend, but has no plans for anything serious like marriage, kids, and settling down just yet. “And even if I do have kids,” she announces, “I have no plans to give up my career. Although London wouldn’t be the best place to have them, but I’m not thinking about popping them out just now.”
She says that emotionally, she’s content and calm, but is crucially aware that she’s driven by a need to achieve some professional high that might never come. And she’s fine with that. She’s fine with her own negative analysis and constant self-deprecation. “For the day I sit here and go, yeah, I am f***ing brilliant, is the day that I should give it all up.”
Atonement goes on general release tomorrow.
Keira Knightley’s road to fame
1985 Born in Teddington, Middlesex, the daughter of an actor and a
playwright
1988 Asked her parents to get her an agent, but they resisted for three
years
1994 Her first film role, in Moira Armstrong’s A Village Affair
1999 Appeared in her first high-profile role as Sabe in Star Wars
Episode I
2001 Began A levels at Esher College, Surrey, but quit when she was
offered the role of Lara in Doctor Zhivago
2002 The big time beckons in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like
Beckham.
2003 First starred as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean
trilogy
2003 Began dating the Irish model Jamie Dornan
2005 Nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride
& Prejudice. Began dating co-star Rupert Friend, having split up with
Dornan.
Louise Cohen
Profanity is the sign of an unsophisticated mind.
Trisha, Port of Spain, Trinidad
Keira is not only beautiful, but also a fantastic example of a someone who has made things happen for themselves. To all of the people bad mouthing her acting I say you all reak of jealousy.
Further, to all the self proclaimed "fatties" and defenders of such, you need to get over yourselves. For years it has been socially acceptable to critique an overly thin physique, to condemn smokers and to decry any one who shows any form of self abuse, all that is except the overweight people. Everyone feels they have the right to inform a smoker how harmful their habit is, even in the most gential of situations such as dinner party, however, when was the last time any one turned to a fattie and explained to them what a burdon their self indulgence is their body. And to those who want to jump on me and say obesity is an illness or genetics, I say yeah right! Ever seen a fatty on the news in ethiopia?
Put down the fork!
A Smythe, Leeds,
Dear Emma, Paris, France, I am in fact one of the 'fatties' you refer to above. What you have surprisingly failed to realise is that we DO live in a skinny world where if you are carrying extra weight you are deemed most wanted and worthy of punishment by the fat brigade. However if you are drastically underweight like Ms Knightley you are automatically offered sympathy or even worse worshipped for your enthralling (yeah right!!) beauty! The double standard that exists in the world today is appaling. Skinny is acceptable even when it is dangerously unhealthy yet us fat people are consistently harrassed on a daily basis from all directions whether its from the media, the NHS or the man on the street. This is the problem.
Sandra, London, UK
That was a really long dreadful interview. I feel like I need to purge now.
Hvess, Ft.Worth, Texas
"And though weâd never wade straight into the tabloid fixation with anorexia..." we would, on the other hand, deign to centre and theme the entirety of a full-length interview with Knightley on her body.
Bravo! Disdaining the tabloids for being body-obsessed AND getting to write about Keira Knightley's walnut-coloured thighs. That's what I call having your cake and eating it.
J D, Kent,
Looks like Keira Knightley and I have one thing in common: A magnet for the comments of disturbed, marginalised White women with anger transference problems.
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Nagano
I am very puzzled why an interview with Knightley, supposed to be busy promoting a film, should be so focussed on the issue of weight and should then provoke a comment about the "social acceptability" of one body shape or another.
To be significantly over- or underweight is simply not healthy. Think about amenorrheia and loss of fertility; what treadful fate for a woman who is skinny. And, with a population that is busy stuffing its face, think about the cost of obesity to us all: a National Health Service that cannot afford to pay for treatments of diseases that are not self-inflicted such as those that are suffered by the greedy and those without self control.
As for her acting, well enough's been said about that so far.
Tom, Canterbury, UK
The best way to get the actresses, we, the public want in films, is, not to go and see Keira baby's lack lustred efforts
No profit, no actress! It's as simple as that!
prudence eely bond mcguire , Herne Hill,London, England
The best way to get the actresses, we, the public want in films, is, not to go and see Keira baby's lack lustred efforts.
No profit, no actress! It's as simple as that!
prudence eely bond mcguire , Herne Hill,London, England
The best way to get the actresses, we, the public want in films, is, not to go and see Keira baby's lack lustred efforts
No profit, no actress! It's as simple as that!
prudence eely bond mcguire , Herne Hill,London, England
She seems a nice enough person and if she's healthy too, I am glad for her. The trout pout is unfortunate, though.
But the fact that the media has made her into a celeb does not make her an actor of any particular skill or talent. Like many others, she's mediocre at best, with a very limited range. However, Keira makes a far better living, doing what she does, than I do so good luck to her!
Harriet, Sydney, Australia
Her repeated use of foul language put me off , even though I liked her a little before I read the article. And I'm just 2 years older than she is. Nevertheless, I do agree with most of what she said. Women are under more stress to live up to some ideal than men.
Natalie, Johannesburg, SA
I'm with you Jessica, Keira Knightley's acting skills seem to be limited to pouting and baring her teeth at top speed. However, I still quite like her because she's very slim, like myself, and doesn't feel the need to explain herself for it. Everybody seems to think they have the right to comment on a person's weight when said person is on the slim side, but imagine if we skinnies started going up to all the fatties saying, with a slightly concerned expression - "ooh you look like you've put on weight, you should be careful" etc. Perhaps Keira could abandon the acting alltogether (who nominates her for these awards I'd like to know?) and just concentrate on making skinny socially acceptable again...
Emma, Paris, France
I also agree that one has yet to see good acting by Knightley. I just hated her performance in Pride and Prejudice. She has a way of pouting, pressing her lips tight and outwards--yuck. She might be beautiful but not an actress if you ask me.
Juliane, Leipzig, Germany
I couldn't agree more with Nu from Manchester. Quite frankly, I have no idea where all the hype comes from other than I suppose her face and thin look. She plays every character the same, and she gives every character one look, cold and stoic. Her characters have no depth! She makes Mandy Moore look like a deep actress. I was so hugely disappointed in her performance in King Arthur and Pride and Prejudice especially. Such a shame those parts couldn't have been played by someone else...even Winona Ryder. Keira needs to get over herself.
Mia, Boston, MA, USA
For goodness sake ~ let's have some healthy and curvy role models for women ~ not these skin & bone examples. Kate Winslet is an excellent example.
Fiona, Stratford on Avon,
With the right of free speech, anyone should be allowed to say what they think about actors. Besides, when they are paid millions of pounds/dollars for what is essentially a few weeks work, that makes for very good compensation. No one seems to act much anymore, they seem to say "If I was this person, this is how I would be", rather than trying to become the character themselves. And in that respect Ms Knightley is very good indeed.
Charles, Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK
After watching two wondrous films,'The Child' and 'The Page Turner' starring a Gallic beginner of ethereal beauty and astonishing acting ability named Deborah Francois, I searched my brain for a UK actress of the same calibre.
Unfortunately, the inept Keira Knightley,is the only name that sprung to mind. Not because she is in the same class, only that she is about the same age as the French beauty.
Come back Margaret Lockwood and Googie
Withers, where are you, when we need you?
prudence eely bond mcguire , Herne Hill,London, England
Sorry, Jessica, but you obviously didn't see the amount of passion she and McFayden put into Pride and Prejudice. I compared same scenes against the BBC version, and that rain scene Tops the dryly polite BBC scene anytime. She has improved very much, although I do agree the Domino role was a bad fit.
Michelle, Canyon Lake, USA/California
She drops in these swear words as though she needs to prove she's cool.... let the acting say what needs to be said lady! Stop trying so hard....
Kelly Summers, worksop, uk
I couldn't agree more with Nu from Manchester. Quite frankly, I have no idea where all the hype comes from other than I suppose her face and thin look. She plays every character the same, and she gives every character one look, cold and stoic. Her characters have no depth! She makes Mandy Moore look like a deep actress. I was so hugely disappointed in her performance in King Arthur and Pride and Prejudice especially. Such a shame those parts couldn't have been played by someone else...even Winona Ryder. Keira needs to get over herself.
Mia, Boston, MA, USA
Keira K. is one of those most exceptionally rare artist - - - we only get a handful in our lifetime - - - that can bring every tone, mood, nuance, look, glance, body language, and prominent presence to her craft. By drawing on a multitude of past and present actors, combined with her individual (and singularly independent) God given talent, she creates characters / roles that are timeless and will long be remembered. Like other "artists" - - - such as Miles Davis - - - Keira is capable of always breaking new ground as she grows, works & studies hard, remains intent on improving her profession, and uses her intellectual abilities to recognize "that new ground" long before any other current actress - - - or even producers or directors. She'll ultimately go down in history as one of the finest "artists" in acting distinction.
And, while totally unnecessary to note, the anorexia fixation is now a non-issue - she couldnât have such beautiful, healthy legs (thighs & calves) if it were true
Jimmy, P.O. Box 2454, USA
She needs her mouth washed out with a strong soap or else needs to improve her vocabulary.
Deborah M, MI, USA
Miss Knightley sounds like a laugh, to me. If this interview was genuine then she does not sound overly pretentious. Good for her.
Good turn of AngloSaxon phraseology aswell.
Also, she may be slim but that does not mean she is not gorgeous. If her looks helped her to be famous, so what? This is the 21st century earth, isn't it? And her acting may not be "perfect" but if it brings the punters in and gives people enjoyment the purists should stop moaning and make their own films.
Andy McCaughtrie, Peterborough,
I do not really care about how she looks, as long as she can act, and that she cannot. She tries to always play roles which makes her look good. She was ridiculous in Domino. I laughed all the time.She never looks rough even on a boat surrounded by pirates. She should be more credible and put herself in the shoes of the character she plays. One would think if she started to act as such young age, she would be at least good. You are correct Keira, you need to get better!!!
Nu, Manchester,
I'm so sorry, but Keira Knightley is one of the best actress of her generation
Ines, Madrid, Spain
John from Dundee, UK: You say, "I'm fed up of people, usually fat women, telling me I need to put on weight." No one has any right to judge anyone else on their weight or their looks; thin and fat people both need to learn to keep their thoughts to themselves. Did it ever occur to you that women are fed up of people, usually scrawny people, telling them they need to take off weight? Keira Knightley has a gorgeous face. Time will tell whether she's a good actress or not.
Christopher, Great Falls , Montana, USA
It's actually astounding how bad Keira is at acting. She lacks passion, fire, emotion and in all her roles is totally uninspiring. I am a huge fan of McAvoy but because she is so bad at her job I actively avoid her films, so it looks as if Atonement is one I'll be missing out on.
Laura, London,
I see Miss K fatted up her lips. How sad and stupid.
Art Ocone, Vero Beach, Florida
I'm so sorry, but Keira Knightley is one of the best actress of her generation.
Ines, Madrid, Spain
She's fantastic and one of only two of the female 'pin-ups' on my wall (the other being Liv Tyler, before you ask). She's got buckets of beauty and grace. And as John says, it's just jealousy that keeps people putting her down. I've had one friend who is STILL skinny despite being 16 years older than when I first met her. She is in no way anorexic - and has a hell of a lot more energy than I am and achieves more.
Tina, Duesseldorf, Germany
Is John of Dundee so blinded by misogyny that he cannot see the ridiculous hypocrisy he displays in his own post? He castigates women for doling out unwanted advice about physical failings and then proceeds, in his own words, to aggressively slag off the average British women for being elephantine in size. Perhaps he is terrified the next elephantine woman he is so rude about will just sit on him until an apology is forthcoming.
Kate Winspur, Melbourne, Australia
None of her performances have been quite 'perfect'???!! Have yet to see a performance from this girl in which she is not wooden, cold and completely devoid of any talent. She is dull and too aware of her beauty - the only reason she gets cast. It seems completely unfathomable to me how she continues to work and be praised for it. The 'obsession' with her body is surely what keeps her going, she better hope people continue to be bizarrely 'hooked' by it.
Jessica, Surrey,
She is no skinnier than the half of the planet that doesn't happen to live in the "developed" world. I'm fed up of people, usually fat women, telling me I need to put on weight. What is it with women that they will accept no drawing attention to any of their physical or mental failings, real or imagined, but will quite happily and aggressively give out "advice" to everyone else as it suits and yet they see no hypocrisy in this? When feminism turns on women it is in trouble, as it has been for years of course. Clever ways of slagging off another human being just because she isn't a standard British elephant size is fairly easily seen through these days, even by young women, and even by Knightley's lawyers I would have thought.
John, Dundee, UK