Keira Knightley has revealed why she would never work on a major Hollywood film franchise again.
The Oscar nominee, 39, shot to fame as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in 2003 – when she was just 17 years old and faced intense public scrutiny.
Knightley said she gave up years of her life to stick to the relentless filming schedule, with the Curse of the Black Pearl’s sequel Dead Man’s Chest released in 2006 and At World’s End premiering a year later.
Dead Man’s Chest set records at the time as the fastest film to gross $1bn worldwide and becoming the third highest-grossing film in history.
Knightley went on to star in two acclaimed Joe Wright dramas: Atonement in 2007 and Pride and Prejudice in 2005, which earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress.
Speaking to The Times, Knightley said of the Pirates franchise: “It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time.”
She explained: “I was seen as sh*t because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for.
“They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”
When asked if she’d ever work on a film franchise again, Knightley shut the prospect down by saying and criticised the Pirates shooting schedule.
“The hours are insane. It’s years of your life. You have no control over where you’re filming, how long you’re filming, what you’re filming,” she said.
Last year, Knightley told Harper’s Bazaar that playing a sexualised character like Elizabeth Swann at such a young age left her feeling “stuck” and “constrained” in Hollywood.
“[Elizabeth] was the object of everybody’s lust,” she said.
“Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fight in her. But it was interesting coming from being really tomboyish to getting projected as quite the opposite.
She continued: “I felt very constrained. I felt very stuck. So the roles afterwards were about trying to break out of that…I didn’t have a sense of how to articulate it.
“It very much felt like I was caged in a thing I didn’t understand.”
Elsewhere in The Times interview, Knightley reflected on the scrutiny she faced during her early days in the spotlight when there was constant speculation that she had an eating disorder.
While she said she knew she wasn’t dealing with an eating disorder, since she “was eating,” the scrutiny about her appearance was still extremely hurtful.
“In that classic trauma way I don’t remember it,” she recalled.
“There’s been a complete delete, and then some things will come up and I’ll suddenly have a very bodily memory of it because, ultimately, it’s public shaming, isn’t it?”
