Keira Knightley (Actor)

Keira Knightley arrives at the premiere of Pride & Prejudice in Germany. (Photo: Nadine Rupp / Getty Images)

About Keira Knightley

Thanks to her standout performance in the surprising hit “Bend It Like Beckham” (2002), unknown actress Keira Knightley vaulted to the attention of moviegoers outside her native England. Prior to her playing a young semi-pro soccer player who befriends an Indian girl more interested in joining the team than following her parent’s traditional ways, Knightley had already amassed a long list of film, television and theater credits, including a famed – albeit brief – appearance in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” (1999) as Sabe, Natalie Portman’s decoy queen. But it was the juggernaut pirate adventure “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003) and its two sequels, “Dead Man’s Chest” (2005) and “At World’s End (2007), that cemented Knightley as a truly international star, able to hold her own with the likes of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Not one to be pigeonholed, however, she broadened her range in 2005, starring as the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice,” a role that earned Knightley her first Oscar nomination and demonstrated that she was more than just a pretty face in the midst of testosterone-fueled action movies.

Born Keira Christina Knightley in Teddington, Middlesex, in England on March 26, 1985, Knightley came from an entertainment family. Her father, Will Knightley, was a television and stage actor; her mother Sharman MacDonald was an actress, playwright, and novelist. Plagued by dyslexia as a child, Knightley worked hard to achieve good grades so that she could convince her parents to allow her to pursue acting, which was her main goal from a very early age – enough that she asked for an agent at the age of three. By the age of seven, she had made her television debut with a bit part in “Royal Celebration” (1993), and over the next few years appeared in several noteworthy English television movies, including the noteworthy “Coming Home” (1998), an adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher’s novel about two English families caught up in World War II, starring Peter O’Toole and Joanna Lumley. In 1998, her resemblance to actress Natalie Portman earned her the role of Sabe, the handmaiden double to Queen Amidala, in “Star Wars: Episode One The Phantom Menace.” In an amusing bit of ballyhoo, director George Lucas did not reveal that Knightley was doubling for Portman in certain scenes until after the film was released. Additionally, the two actresses looked so much alike when in the Japanese-inspired makeup, that their own mothers could not tell them apart.

Knightley returned to more English television productions until 2001, when she earned a substantial role in the UK theatrical feature, “The Hole” (2001), a psychological thriller co-starring American actress Thora Birch. The film, which had a direct-to-video release in the States, featured a brief topless scene from the then-15-year-old Knightley. That same year, she also made her debut as a lead actress in the Walt Disney TV movie “Princess of Thieves,” playing the teenage daughter of Robin Hood. During this time, Knightley was also studying in school, and while finishing her exams in 2001, filmed “Bend It Like Beckham,” a charming comedy-romance about an Indian girl (Parminder Nagra) whose love for soccer clashes with her family’s traditional beliefs. Knightley played Nagra’s friend, who struggles with her own family issues, including her mother (Juliet Stevenson) wanting her to act more feminine. The two girls’ issues struck a chord with world audiences and critics took notice of Knightley’s ability to play drama and comedy, as well as act believably physical in the sporting scenes. Knightley, however, continued to pursue her college studies and take the occasional role in UK features like “Pure” (2002), about drug addicts in a star-crossed romance.

Knightley’s collegiate life came to an end soon afterwards when a conversation with television producer Andy Harries convinced her to take up acting full time. Her first job out of the box offered a distinct challenge – a television adaptation of “Doctor Zhivago” (2002), for which she would play Lara, a role made iconic by Julie Christie in the 1965 film version. She followed this with a small and somewhat underwhelming role in the portmanteau feature, “Love, Actually” (2003), in which she played a young bride-to-be whose best man has fallen for her. Packed with starpower including Laura Linney, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, and Alan Rickman, the film did well in the United States and furthered Knightley’s ascending star.

However, it was her next project that cemented her celebrity status. Initially viewed as a risky venture – it was, after all, based on a Disney World ride, and the first movie about pirates in decades – the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters in years. And while Johnny Depp’s turn as the addled Captain Jack Sparrow attracted the lion’s share of the critical response, audiences and filmmakers alike did not fail to notice Knightley’s ability to play determined, romantic, coltish, and delicate in the middle of a special effects orgy – and while wearing a corset to boot. Bruckheimer himself signed her up for two more films, as well as another action-oriented historical feature – a radical re-interpretation of the Arthurian legend called “King Arthur” (2004), for which she played Guinevere as a sword-swinging Celtic warrior. Despite Knightley’s buzz, the film did not fare well at the box office – and Knightley was both amused and horrified to discover that her image in the promotional art had been enhanced considerable in the bust.

Her next two features in America were not hits either – “The Jacket” (2004) was a muddled science fiction thriller with Adrien Brody that showed her knack with an American accent, and “Domino” (2005), based loosely on the life of Domino Harvey, the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey and a professional bounty hunter, was a typically overblown mess from Tony Scott that found Knightley looking extremely uncomfortable while wielding high-powered weaponry. A proposed adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s novel “Tulip Fever” was shut down due to the closure of British tax loopholes for filmmakers, so she returned to more genteel settings with “Pride and Prejudice” (2005), a spot-on adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Her turn as the free-thinking Elizabeth Bennett, who seeks to determine her own life path, earned her a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination.

During this incredibly busy period – which also found Knightley serving as the face of numerous companies, including Ausprey jewelers and Chanel perfume – she found her life under scrutiny by the world press, which determined that her slender frame was the result of anorexia. Knightley took umbrage at the accusation, though also noting that her own grandmother had suffered from it. Her romantic life also made the world papers; among her gentlemen friends during this period were Irish fashion model Jamie Dornan and actor Rupert Friend, whom she met on the set of “Pride and Prejudice.”

In 2005, Knightley returned to the “Pirates” franchise for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” which scored even higher numbers at the box office, though critics gave the film a solid drubbing for its convoluted plot. The film was shot back to back with a second sequel, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (2007), which was the proposed end of the series, though most in the industry felt that such a money-making engine could not be shut down so easily. Knightley spent most of 2006 filming several future projects, including “The Best Time of Their Lives,” about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, from a script by her mother. She also earned top marks as “Sexiest Woman” or similar accolades from various “lads” magazines like FHM and Maxim, and attracted considerable attention for posing nude with Scarlett Johansson and the ubiquitous Tom Ford on the cover of Vanity Fair.

Despite her popularity in Hollywood, Knightley retained a home in London and made no bones about her interest in remaining a UK citizen and resident, while continuing to do business Stateside. Her next few projects remained outside the studio system, allowing Knightley to further broaden her resume. She starred in the adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s period novel, “Silk” (2007), playing the loving and doting wife of a silkworm merchant (Michael Pitt), who falls in love with a concubine (Sei Ashina) while on business in Japan. Following “Silk,” Knightley portrayed the sister of a fledgling writer whose life is irrevocably changed when her lover is accused of a crime he did not commit in “Atonement” (2007).

Notes

"I first stared asking for an agent when I was three. I thought it was really unfair that I didn't have one. I got my first part when I was seven. I basically just stood in the background, smiled and looked very cute. I didn't really do very much." - Knightley to Vanity Fair, February 2003

"Sex scenes are easy," she laughs. "I don't have a problem with them. I'm an actress. I have certain tools - one of them is my body. I don't mind stripping off occasionally." - Knightley in the Mirror, May 14, 2007

"There are a lot of beautiful girls around the world, but the problem is, they can't turn off who they are when the camera turns on. Keira is very natural in front of the camera - when she becomes the character, you don't see any of the acting wheels turning" - Jerry Bruckeimer, producer of "Pirates of the Caribbean" to Vanity Fair April 2004

"To take this character who's so infamous and completely change her is one of the reasons that you do this job, to keep on changing and surprising people." - Knightley on playing Guinevere in "King Arthur" to People, July 9, 2004

Knightley was diagnosed with dyslexia as a small child