Keira Knightley, the celebrated British actress, has graced the silver screen with her exceptional performances in various blockbuster movies. However, when she played the role of Elizabeth Swann in the wildly successful "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, the experience was not entirely liberating for her.
advertisement
Keira Knightley stated that she felt 'caged' after completing Pirates of the Caribbean and took parts to 'break out' of the image that others were projecting onto her.
She was just 17 years old when she was cast as one of the key characters in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. You've probably heard of it.
Keira played Elizabeth Swan in Pirates Of The Caribbean, alongside Johnny Depp
Image: Disney/ Jerry Bruckheimer
She'd previously been in The Phantom Menace and Bend It Like Beckham, but Pirates of the Caribbean propelled her to stardom.
Yet, her fame and role put her on the Hollywood map; she has spoken about as making her feel 'very constrained' as it gave her 'quite an entrance into adult life'.
Keira says she felt "constrained"
Image: Harper's Bazaar UK/Betina du Toit
advertisement
Knightley said the transition from 'being really tomboyish' in Bend It Like Beckham to 'being projected as quite the opposite' in Pirates of the Caribbean was startling.
Speaking to Harper's Bazaar, she said her Pirates character Elizabeth Swann was 'the object of everybody's lust' in the movie and it kicked off 'a very tricky five-year window' in her life where she felt 'quite powerless'.
The actress became "an object of lust"
Image: Harper's Bazaar UK/Betina du Toit
She said: "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.
"I was incredibly hard on myself. I was never good enough. I was utterly single-minded. I was so ambitious. I was so driven.
Keira says she was very hard on herself at the start of her career
Image: Ian West
advertisement
"I was always trying to get better and better and improve, which is an exhausting way to live your life."
Keira Knightley in the Boston Strangler
Image: PA Photo/©Disney
advertisement
From 2003 and 2008, Knightley appeared in several films, including Love Actually, Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, and two additional Pirates films.
After suffering from burnout and receiving a PTS diagnosis, she ultimately made the decision to take a few years off. When she returned to acting, she sought out more nuanced roles and indie films because she found the projects appealing.
Keira is on the front cover of April's Harper's Bazaar UK
Image: Harper's Bazaar UK/Betina du Toit
advertisement
There have been discussions about restarting the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but there has been a lot of development hell around the idea since the previous film in the series came out over six years ago.
Keira in Love Actually in 2003
Image: Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
advertisement
Margot Robbie was supposed to play the lead in a sixth film that was in development, but the actress said it was "dead." But, series producer Jerry Bruckheimer claimed it wasn't, and perhaps the screenplay will be used in the future.
He stated that another script prepared by Ted Elliot (writer of the first four Pirates movies) and Craig Mazin, (creator of Chernobyl and co-creator of The Last of Us) was 'going forward first'.
Nobody knows if it will be produced in the end.
Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Credit: Maximum Film / Alamy Stock Photo