Keira Knightley has spoken out about the aggressive attention she received from men when Pirates of the Caribbean catapulted her to international fame.
The Oscar nominee, 39, first played Elizabeth Swann in the Disney fantasy film series alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in 2003 – when she was just 17 years old.
Knightley, who previously said she would never work on another Hollywood franchise due to their gruelling schedule, revealed men would stalk her then blame her for their unwanted advances.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Knightley said: “I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that ‘you wanted this.’
“It was rape speak,” she continued. “You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere.”
Knightley was only 16 when she was cast in her breakthrough role as Juliette in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham. A year later, Love Actually followed before Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003.
“It’s very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing,” Knightley reflected.
“Having said that, I wouldn’t have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I’m never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost.”
The Pride and Prejudice star said her “jaw dropped” over how she was treated in public following her on-screen success. “They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it – it felt the same to me.
“It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye,” she said.
Knightley added: “Social media has put that in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that’s been done to young women, to teenage girls…Ultimately, that’s what fame is – it’s being publicly shamed. A lot of teenage girls don’t survive that.”
It comes shortly after Knightley told The Times last month that Pirates opened doors for her in the film industry and gave her financial stability but caused her to face intense public scrutiny.
“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” she said. “I was seen as s*** 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.”
