Keira Knightley has revealed that her role in Pirates of the Caribbean left her with trauma.
The film series, known for its impressive ensemble cast featuring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Knightley, made its debut in 2003. The franchise quickly became a massive success, ultimately producing five films by 2017.
Although her role as Elizabeth Swann, daughter of Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) and love interest of Will Turner (Bloom), shot her to international fame, Knightley has opened up about the challenges she faced due to the intense public attention.
At just 17 years old when the first movie was released, Knightley matured on screen through the first film and its sequels, including Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End, and Dead Men Tell No Tales.
In an interview with Variety, the actress and mother of two described the experience as ‘traumatic.’
“I found it pretty horrific. I’m not an extrovert, so I found that level of scrutiny and that level of fame really hard,” she explained in a 2016 interview. “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.”
Knightley struggled so much that she eventually sought hypnotherapy as a young adult in her early twenties.
She shared that her ambitions left her feeling ‘exhausted,’ and recalled fearing a panic attack at the BAFTA red carpet after being diagnosed with PTSD.
“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,” she told Hollywood Reporter in 2018.
Eventually, the star of Love Actually found balance, expressing to Variety that she now feels ‘lucky’ to be at a more manageable level of fame and enjoyment in her career.
“I can deal with it now, and that’s great. But at the time, it was not so great, and took many years of therapy to figure it out.”
Despite the franchise’s success, Knightley admitted during an appearance on BBC Radio 2’s The Scott Mills Breakfast Show on November 2 that she has only watched a few of her films, and one Pirates of the Caribbean installment in particular never caught her eye.
“It’s funny because my relationship with a piece of work is obviously different from people viewing it,” Knightley noted. “What’s wonderful about those films is they have become people’s favorites and they watch them again and again and again and again.”
Despite the love from audiences, Knightley says she has only seen some of her films ‘once,’ including Love Actually at its premiere over two decades ago.
When questioned about watching Pirates of the Caribbean, Knightley admitted she never watched the third movie.
“I just feel there’s too much face. There’s just such a lot of face,” she joked about her reason. “Really close up, large face.
“It’s just, nobody needs to see that.”