Keira Knightley names her favourite modern-day actors: “I never tire of watching”
Inspiration has to come from somewhere, and for those in the business of entertainment, all you need to do is look up at the big screen. It’s an industry where your friends are also your biggest source of competition, with actors going neck and neck in the audition room and at awards shows as they practice their best gracious loser face while smiling up at the statuette they believe they should’ve won. However, as much as it can hurt, it’s a business that continues to grow on the talents of those who are a part of it, remaining a source of inspiration in the endless abilities of those who make movies happen.
While Keira Knightley has had a fair share of iconic moments, whether it be the exquisite romance of Pride and Prejudice or her girl power moments in Pirates of the Caribbean, there is always someone else whose work informs and inspires your own, with Knightley describing the actors she finds herself gushing over.
First up on Knightley’s list was another British queen, Olivia Colman, who quite literally played the Queen of England in Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2018 film The Favourite. The actor has been a regular collaborator of the Greek auteur, but first reached acclaim through her television work, later stealing the hearts of global audiences after her colourful Oscars acceptance speech and continuing to make equally bold choices in her career.
Whether it be through darker roles like that in Tyrannosaur and The Lost Daughter to the light-hearted chaos of Paddington in Peru, there is nothing Colman can’t do, which is most certainly why Knightley described her as “obviously brilliant”.
Another person who has captured her attention is Emma Stone, who, funnily enough, starred alongside Colman in The Favourite and is also another muse of Lanthimos’. She might just be one of the last remaining movie stars, with an infectious energy and zest for filmmaking that leads to unpredictable and highly talked about projects, whether it be her controversial part in the Poor Thing or Kinds of Kindness.
She’s one of the few actors that you can still count on to make great films that will strike a public nerve, and perhaps encapsulates the truest purpose of art itself, with Knightley saying she is “completely wonderful”. She also said, “I never tired of watching Natalie Portman”, another actor who similarly bounces between independent directors like Pablo Larrain, Todd Haynes and Darren Aronofsky.
Knightley then mentioned a former co-star by pronouncing her admiration for Sam Rockwell, with the pair working together on Laggies in 2014. Directed by Lynne Shelton, a trailblazer of low-budget filmmaking and slice-of-life stories, it follows an unemployed twenty-something woman who is struggling to get her life together, crossing paths with an older man who is similarly behind in life. Their chemistry is effortlessly natural, and it comes as no surprise that this was founded by a real-life connection.
And lastly, Knightley said, “Viggo Mortensen, to die for”, with both actors starring alongside each other in David Cronenberg’s 2011 film A Dangerous Method. Mortensen has forever been a key collaborator of Cronenberg’s, with the actor building up a strange and disconcerting filmography that defies easy categorisation, with a brief foray into commercial filmmaking before dipping back into films that make us deeply uneasy. His talents need no further explanation, and he stands out to many as a deeply complex and interior performer.
