Keira Knightley Atonement Interview

Keira Knightley: She’s already been nominated for one Oscar following her brilliant performance in Joe Wrights 2005 hit film Pride and Prejudice. Two years later and with the same director at the helm, the 22-year-old British actress Keira Knightley is expected to earn herself another nomination for her latest role in Atonement. The film was recently nominated in seven categories for the 2008 Golden Globes, often an indication on a how a film will fare at the Oscars. Based on the Ian McEwan best seller, Knightley plays Cecilia Tallis an upper class young English woman who falls for Robbie (James McAvoy), the educated but financially strapped son of the housekeeper who, on the hottest day of summer in 1935 is accused of a terrible crime, he didn’t commit. Gaynor Flynn caught up with the actress at the recent Venice International Film Festival.

Gaynor Flynn: Were you looking to play a more mature character?

Keira Knightley: I was looking for a character that was more mature than I had played before. Obviously given my age I’d been playing a lot of girls on the brink of womanhood. I wanted to play somebody with a certain maturity who is dealing with things that weren’t teenage based. And I think what really fascinated me about her was that it was this girl in this incredibly privileged position but who is completely directionless and is probably angry and doesn’t know why. She’s almost like a pressure cooker about to explode. She knows what she should be doing but she can’t make herself do it. It’s almost like she’s atrophied in the position that she’s in and I was fascinated by that.


Gaynor Flynn: Were you fascinated by the period as well, they act very differently in 1935, they appear very wooden compared to modern actors. Were you worried about that?

Keira Knightley: Isn’t that pretty much anything anyone ever says about me, she’s very wooden on screen? (laughs) So no, I think it was actually one of the things I got really excited about was doing it in that very 1940’s, 1930’s style. It’s a style of film acting that’s pretty much gone really. I mean the David Lean films we were watching particularly Brief Encounter for me it was very much Cecilia Johnson who I took inspiration from if you like and a bit of Deborah Kerr for good measure but that style of acting isn’t what we do now. I think it was really interesting for everybody to change pace of what they normally do on screen, and to really change that and do the 1940’s where the speech is like machine gun fire its really quick and that British accent is pretty much lost. I think its something most directors shy away from because it is difficult and there is a worry that you ostracise the audience because of it, it’s the sort of peak of that British stiff upper lip. But Atonement is not a comfortable film, its not a comfortable book you need to get that feel of tension of something that’s going to go wrong and I think in some way the language and the style of acting helped to get that heightened realism that we were going for in the whole feel of it.


Gaynor Flynn: Were you tired of action adventure?

Keira Knightley: You know you do a film like Pirates of the Caribbean and its designed to appeal to the biggest audience possible. It’s a family movie. I never wanted to become an actress to play the same person again and again and again. I think the interesting part of it is changing, that’s what’s interesting to me. Elizabeth Swan is great but it’s a kid’s character, it’s a action character. She’s meant to fight monsters and that’s what she does and that’s lovely but when you’re looking for something more intellectually stimulating then you look for something like Atonement which you really have to dive into.


Gaynor Flynn: Did you think okay I’m going to do Pirates and get a bit more known and then I can pick and choose my other projects?

Keira Knightley: No it doesn’t really work like that. When I was offered Pirates it wasn’t like I was being offered anything else. That was it so you don’t really have an idea. If you think about it, it was based on a Disney theme park ride, you look at it and go this is not going to work and I remember telling my friends and they laughed at me and I was like yeah its really embarrassing isn’t it, but that was the work that was offered so you take the work and then all of a sudden it’s a success and then all of a sudden you are in this incredibly fortunate position where you are able to go okay this is what I want to pursue. But it’s not planned.


Gaynor Flynn: So the plan wasn’t to become more famous, and have more power so you have more control over your career?

Keira Knightley: I think fame is a very fickle friend and if that’s what you’re looking forward then you’re not going to lead a very happy life because you’re never going to be famous enough. Obviously I wanted to be successful, I think everybody in what ever career they choose wants to be as successful as they possibly can but I think in a funny kind of way, fame is the downside of that.


Gaynor Flynn: Do you find the focus on your personal life dehumanising in a way?

Keira Knightley: Of course it is. Anybody reading anything about anyone can see its dehumanising people because actually intrinsically its not polite is it? You don’t walk along the street and make a comment about what’s somebody’s wearing or you don’t walk around the streets and go well you’re a bitch cause you said that, it goes against everything we’re taught to do, so obviously its strange. It’s not particularly a part of culture today that I like. I don’t’ enjoy the kind of voyeurism that involves so on a personal note its not the way I get my entertainment. It’s quite strange because you can’t just be an actress. You have to be a celebrity, which seems to be this new things where there’s no difference between somebody on a reality TV show or somebody who actually works and does a job in a film.


Gaynor Flynn: Why did you want to become an actress?

Keira Knightley: I don’t know. I mean can you answer any question about why you wanted to do something at the age of six? But I enjoy what I do, I’ve always enjoyed it, probably for different reasons but again I don’t know what I got out of it at six I think I’ve always enjoyed stories. It’s entertainment and who wouldn’t want to live their life in stories?


Gaynor Flynn: Would you say you’re a confident person?

Keira Knightley: No, not at all. But I don’t think it’s that black or white. It’s not like you go in there and go I believe that I’m the best in the room, you just go this is something I really love to do and I really want to do it. I don’t know if I’m the best but I want to be a part of it so I’ll give it a great go and if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll walk on and do something else but you might as well give it a go.


Gaynor Flynn: You’ve been in a lot of period films, are you looking for more contemporary roles?

Keira Knightley: No actually I’m about to do another period piece (laughs) called The Duchess and it was sort of an accident because I was looking for something contemporary and then I read the script and I read the book it was based on and went oh wow. And that’s why planning your career never works because if I’m reading a script like The Duchess and it moves me I’m not going to turn it down because its set in 1784, that would be pretty fucking stupid. So yeah you can have a plan to go right I want to do a really gritty modern day piece and then it all goes tits up because you read a script that you love so yes in an ideal world at some point yes, because I want to keep changing.