‘I found it quite horrifying’: Keira Knightley needed years of therapy after Pirates of the Caribbean

At 39, with over 60 films behind her and two Oscar nominations, Keira Knightley is a more than confirmed actress who has not yet said her last word. And it is ultimately everything she dreamed of since she was little, she who got her first role in a series in 1993 at only 8 years old, before taking advantage of small opportunities throughout the 90s, including a role in the very famous Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

However, it was not until the first half of the 2000s, when she came of age, that her career really took off. Keira Knightley took off. After a few bigger projects, such as Gurinder Chadha’s comedy Bend It Like Beckham in 2002, she was introduced to the general public in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, the first film in what would become one of the most famous and profitable adventure sagas in history. That same year, she was also part of the prestigious cast of Love Actually.

However, having started acting and traveling the world since she was a child has not spared the actress from the terrifying experience of becoming a true global star overnight. Also starring Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp, The Curse of the Black Pearl has indeed become a phenomenon with its $654 million profit and will eventually give rise to four sequels.

When the film was released, Keira Knightley was only 18 years old and, as she would later admit, the experience ended up being traumatic for her.

“I found it quite horrifying. I’m not an extrovert, so I found that level of scrutiny and that level of celebrity really hard.,” she said in a 2018 interview with Variety.It was an age where you are ‘becoming’, where you have not yet ‘become’, and where you have to make mistakes. It is a very precarious age, especially for women. In a way, you are still a child.”

She added: “It was traumatic, but it was a turning point for my career. So, looking back, would I do anything differently? No, I wouldn’t because I’m incredibly lucky now, and my career is at a point where I’m really enjoying it, and I have a much less intense level of fame. I can deal with it now, and that’s great. But at the time, it wasn’t so great, and it took me many years of therapy to get there.”

And what did she learn from this experience?We have to be very careful with our young women. When I work with young actresses, I’m very protective of them. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, you’re only here because of your face.’ And they put them down because of their appearance. I think everyone can be a little kinder.”

After Pirates of the Caribbean

Last March, the actress spoke again about the difficulties she had with her character and the way it was presented on screen in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar: “[Elizabeth Swann] was the object of everyone’s desire. Not that she didn’t have a struggle in her, but it was special [pour moi] from going from a real tomboy to, on screen, something quite the opposite [de ce que je suis]. I felt really constrained, very confined. So my next roles were trying to escape from that… I didn’t know how to articulate all that. I felt trapped in something I didn’t understand.”

In fact, at the time she was filming parts 2 and 3 of Pirates of the Caribbean, we could also see Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, The Jacket and Domino.

“I had a strange entry into adulthood, because I became famous very young. Women are expected to do nothing, publicly, and I had a lot of trouble with that. It was a real electroshock.”, she finally concluded.

United International Pictures

Keira Knightley will soon star in the Netflix series Black Doves, as well as the thriller The Woman in Cabin 10.

In the meantime, find her in her latest drama The Boston Strangleravailable for streaming on Disney+, where you can also find the entire Pirates of the Caribbean saga.