You want to talk about life experiences? Keira Knightley is twenty-three years old and has already starred in three very long movies based on a Disney theme park ride.
"I mean, it was really fucking embarrassing and we all thought it was going to be total shit anyway," she told Matthew Rhys. "But then suddenly I was kissing Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and bang, there you go, instant bloody stardom. I'd always wanted to be an actress, always dreamt of it, but I don't think you're ever quite prepared for being a movie star." Maybe not, but it's probably a good sign that she recognizes that the two positions are not the same, though they sometimes overlap. "I know that when Bend it like Beckham came out and it was quickly followed by Pirates, suddenly people were looking at me and thinking, 'Well she's not very good, she's just a pretty face, don't know what all the fuss is about'. But I wasn't really ready to be scrutinised. I wasn't any good at my job yet. But with Pride and Prejudice, yes, I was at least trying to say: look, see, I can learn, and I can do this, or at least give me the right director and I'll give it my best shot. So since those first films, I've always been looking to be stretched - it doesn't always mean I'm going to be good, but I'm trying to become a good actress, really I am."
Knightley, whose acting in the Jane Austen picture and for that matter in Bend It Like Beckham the Pirates movies was actually pretty good, really it was, is growing up, and she'll soon be seen playing the "childhood sweetheart" of Dylan Thomas (Cillian Murphy) in "a very sexy piece", The Edge of Love. (Sienna Miller co-stars as Thomas's wife, who is presumably the edge of the title.) The role called for her to do a little singing, and to help psych herself up for it, she turned to Marlene Dietrich, "She couldn't really sing, not properly, but she had such a ballsy, fuck-off quality to her voice that it didn't matter if she hit the right notes, so I thought well I'll try that approach." Dude, Keira Knightley just said "ballsy, fuck-off quality." Can youn imagine what she's going to sound like after she's had a couple of husbands and stints in rehab behind her? Honestly, if more Hollywoos starlets woulf talk this way in interviews instead of saving it for the hired help, it would make it so much easier to forgive so much.
