Keira Knightley: Acting Success, Fame and Body Image

Keira Knightley played the role of Elizabeth Swann in the successful Pirates of the Caribbean Movie 4 years ago it was her Hollywood break through role.
Now playing in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Keira Knightley is a bona fide film star.

It's a big accomplishment for a young 22 year old but it seems to be a life long goal fulfilled. It is said that Keira wanted an agent from the age of 3.

By age 9, Keira had landed her first film role, a small part in A Village Affairs.

More film and TV roles followed, before still aged just 14 - Keira landed her first role in a big Hollywood movie as Sabe in Star Wars prequel 'The Phantom Menace' in 1999.

Within 2 more years she followed up with the role of footballer Jules in 'Bend It Like Beckham' - generally considered to be her real breakthrough.

2003 found Keira with a British hit in 'Love Actually' saw her begin commanding lead roles ranging from a bounty hunter in 'Domino' to Elizabeth Bennett in 'Pride and Prejudice', in 2005.

Keira was recognized with a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the role of Elizabeth Bennett.

Last year's 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie became only the third film to break $1 billion at the box office.

Knightley - who admits she always craved attention - now gets it wherever she goes. That dream of hers is an undoubted reality. And it's a reality she is starting to rethink. Will she make a change.

Paparazzi, and unpleasant stories in the press about Anorexia have been linked to Keira.

The reports angered Knightley enough for her to take a newspaper to court, and she was recently awarded damages for what she described as 'entirely false' and 'deeply offensive' allegations.

The money, along with another £3,000 out of Keira's pocket, will go to BEAT, a charity for people with eating disorders.

Together with the constant scrutiny of prying reporters and the relentless and intrusive flash of the cameras, the incident appears to have left the young actress jaded. Knightley has expressed admiration for the extremely full figure of Beth Ditto, and admitted that she would love to have the curves of 'The Matrix' star Monica Bellucci.

Keira has been more introspective of late.
Previously, Knightly has worked hard to gain success and fame. Now she wants less scrutiny.

In a recent interview with BANG SHOWBIZ, Keira opens up about her fame, anorexia, the darker side of living out her dreams, and explains why she's thinking of quitting Hollywood altogether.

Bang: Why didn't you go to the Oscars this year?
Knightley: I do love going out and getting dressed up as much as the next girl but I wouldn't just turn up at the Oscars for that reason. I wasn't in any film that was nominated so really there was no place for me there.
And to be truthful I'm just completely rubbish at those sorts of events. I've become completely phobic about the red carpet because you just get so scrutinised and all I think is I'm going to be in the Top Ten Worst Dressed .
Bang: You are always praised for your fashion choices, whose style do you admire?
Knightley: I try, I really do but I'm just no good at that stuff. I look at Helena Bonham Carter who just wears whatever she wants and looks amazing. Or Cate Blanchett who is so stunning and so completely stylish and perfect that she looks almost like a living statue.
Bang: Do you enjoy attending celebrity events?
Knightley: I just never feel comfortable. At the parties, I stand on my own, grinning aimlessly, desperate for it all to be over. I can never think of a thing to say. I wish I was Sienna Miller. I watch that girl and she s just fabulous.
She talks to everyone and laughs and smiles and looks as if she is genuinely enjoying herself. When I talk to her I hope a bit of her party personality will rub off on me but it never does. She could give master classes in being the most amazing party guest.
I really actively now try and avoid parties. My idea of a good night is just hanging out with my mates. Actually, my best night out for ages was going to see the Gossip at a club in London.
Bang: What do you think of The Gossip's flamboyant singer Beth Ditto?
Knightley: She is just amazing. And she's so sexy. She really is. When she was performing she started taking all her clothes off. I stood there watching her strip thinking, Oh my God, that woman is so sexy. She has the most amazing body.
Bang: If you could look like one Hollywood star, who would it be?
Knightley: If I m honest I would sit here and say that I wish I had a body like Monica Bellucci which is just so womanly, female and curvy. But I'm not going to do that because then I am falling into that trap of saying you are not happy with what you have.
I wish I had longer legs but I haven't. What I have does its job. And ironically I'm learning to become happier with myself as a result of all this.
Bang: Where do you see yourself in five years time? Will you still be acting?
Knightley: You know, acting was the only thing I ever wanted to do. But to be honest I can see myself in five years or whatever just giving the whole thing up. I honestly would. I d just do something else and move on. I can see things getting to the point where I just can t do this anymore.
Bang: How is your relationship with Rupert Friend going?
Knightley: I just can't go into personal relationships, you have to keep something private.
Bang: You were criticised recently after photographs were recently of you looking thin in a bikini - how did that make you feel?
Knightley: I was completely devastated by all that. Yes, I am thin. And yes, to be honest, I looked very thin in those photos but they were taken immediately after filming 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and I had lost weight. They weren't publicity shots, they were pictures just snapped.
I do a lot of action films but none of them are more physically gruelling than Pirates where we are filming in searing temperatures and shooting fight scenes in which you are wearing a wetsuit underneath a load of corsets, you are fighting with heavy weights in the water. Can you imagine a more advanced cardio workout than that done hour after hour?
Bang: Is it fair to blame celebrities for teenage anorexia?
Knightley: When all that blew up I felt terrible. It was as if I was being made to seem as if I was promoting something when I absolutely was not. I am thin because that's what I am and I was thinner at a point because of the work that I do. Nothing else.
I took it very seriously. I went to the doctor to be checked out and asked him what I could do to put on weight.
Bang: What did the doctor tell you?
Knightley: He said that for someone of my body type to get to a size 12, I would just have to eat a lot of s**t food, stop exercising and drink loads.
Basically my body type is naturally thin. There is nothing I can do about it.
I can manipulate my body to be bigger which I did when I was filming 'Guinevere' by eating loads of proteins and drinking loads of protein shakes, I did manage to bulk myself out.
But I don't want to have to go round eating c**p and being really unhealthy in order for people to stop having a go at me.
Bang: What would you say to teenagers who look at photographs of you and wish they were thinner?
Knightley: I don't want my picture to be on anorexia websites. But I also know enough about that disease to know that it is a mental illness. What I want to say is just be happy with what you are and be healthy but that means nothing to someone with a mental illness - someone who at 56 lbs still thinks of themselves as fat.
I wouldn't dare be so patronising.
It is true that there are people who manipulate their bodies in this business one way or the other. My concern for myself is to be healthy. We have become completely body obsessed. We all have to conform to one shape but I don't see it's an issue just about size.
I think we should appreciate the beauty of older women as well as younger women but that just doesn't happen.
I hate the idea that anyone manipulates their body. But I also hate the fact that naturally thin women like me are becoming scapegoats for promoting a mental illness like anorexia.
Bang: What is your opinion on the raging size 0 debate?
Knightley: I don't know why people are so obsessed.
All those pictures of celebrities. Are they fat, are they thin? Have they got spots? Young female celebrities all over the magazines - it's just horrible.
Bang: What do you find most difficult about being a Hollywood star?
Knightley: Every morning there are ten men outside my flat. They are there from 9am until after midnight with cameras, video cameras, chairs, cars, motorbikes, everything.
The whole celebrity thing is just completely crazy. The paparazzi are not just crazy but they are dangerous. Young women are driven into mental breakdowns because of them.
Bang: Why do you think so many young female celebrities are checking into rehab?
Knightley: Rehab has just become a safe house. I look at Britney Spears and see what torture she's going through and then I think of what I put up with and what she must have to put up with multiplied by 100 and it just makes me want to cry.
Bang: Do you ever feel threatened by paparazzi?
Knightley: We are being hunted. I don't own a car because I can't drive in London because I get chased and it's too dangerous.
If I get into a cab, then I'm risking not just my own safety but the safety of everyone else around me. The cab driver always freaks and drives just looking in the rear view mirror which means he's not concentrating on the road.
I swear someone could get killed because of this stupid situation. It won't be the celebrity. It won't be the paparazzi. It will be someone's child caught up in the middle of this madness.
It got to the point where I truly thought I was going mad. Imagine having a camera in your face, men following you all the time. I got so paranoid, all the time I was thinking, 'Is someone watching me' because they were. I told my mum that this is what schizophrenic people are like, that's what I had become. You see yourself tipping into madness.
Bang: Do you ever wish you weren't famous?
Knightley: I know anyone listening to me could think I'm just being totally dramatic. That's I'm this spoilt little movie star with lots of money, a lovely apartment and great life, why should I be complaining?
But it's just got too much. I'm not just talking about myself. I'm talking about other young women like me. This isn't what I wanted from being an actress. I don't court it.
Bang: Do you still enjoy being an actress?
Knightley: I think I just have to move away or give it up altogether. I couldn't have kids in the situation I'm in now. But I could just do something else. That's probably what s going to happen. I'm just not so hungry any more. I made a decision very recently that I want a life instead.
Bang: How long have you been feeling this way for?
Knightley: Basically I've been in a bit of a state for a while. I haven't had any sort of a holiday since I was 15.
When I first got into acting I was so terrified work would dry up I just went from one project into another and never stopped.
Bang: When did you decide to take a break from acting?
Knightley: I stopped working last November. I had to. I'd got to a body breakdown. I felt I had permanent jet lag and couldn't mentally or physically adjust.
I had an apartment I'd bought but never lived in, friends I loved but never got to see. I just wanted to have a bit of a normal life. I also wanted to go on holiday, so I went to Greece before Christmas which was amazing.
Bang: Is it true your 'Atonement' co-star James McAvoy advised you to take a break in the Himalayas?
Knightley: I couldn't really take all the pressure of being followed around. I was talking to James McAvoy and his wife Ann-Marie who are just fantastic. James is this total mad adventurer who does all sorts of crazy things. He just said to me that there was a big world out there and I needed to get out of my world and into a bigger one.
He suggested trekking in the Himalayas. I just thought, 'Why not', and went. I spent ten days in a place where no-one knew me or cared what films I'd been in.
Bang: Did it help you to relax and get things in perspective?
Knightley: Absolutely. We'd spent days trekking and nights sleeping in little guest houses with barely any electricity or hot water. It was so cold you just had to sleep in your clothes and it was completely liberating and wonderful. I got to have some total peace and balance and see myself as a tiny little insignificant speck something I really needed.