Keira Knightley has opened up about enduring ‘absolutely shocking’ threats after her role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
At just 17, Knightley appeared in the blockbuster adventure film as well as the Christmas favorite Love Actually. Released in 2003, these movies launched her into a global spotlight.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, she played Elizabeth Swann, the governor’s daughter and the love interest of Will Turner, portrayed by Orlando Bloom.
Riding on the success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, she returned for its sequels, including Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End, and Dead Men Tell No Tales.
However, this fame came at a ‘big price’. Knightley faced intense media scrutiny, was body shamed, and had to deal with relentless paparazzi attention.
“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 shared with the Los Angeles Times.
“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.”
She recounted how the paparazzi would assert that she somehow invited the chaos. “I didn’t think it was ok at the time. 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. You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere.”
“They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men,” she added. “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.”
Reflecting on her rapid rise to fame, the Bend It Like Beckham star told Variety in 2016: “I found it pretty horrific. I’m not an extrovert, so I found that level of scrutiny and that level of fame really hard.”
“It was an age where you are becoming, you haven’t become, and you need to make mistakes. It’s a very precarious age, particularly for women.
“You’re in some ways still a child. It was traumatic, but it set up the rest of my career.”
In 2008, she admitted she needed hypnotherapy to prevent a panic attack on the BAFTA red carpet, and she was later diagnosed with PTSD.
She explained to the Hollywood Reporter in 2018: “I did have a mental breakdown at 22, so I did take a year off there and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of all of that stuff. I went deep into therapy and all of that.”
A mother of two, Knightley has also appeared in celebrated films such as Atonement and Pride and Prejudice, the latter earning her an Academy Award nomination.
Her latest project, the Netflix spy drama Black Doves, is currently available for streaming.