The only personal movie Keira Knightley refuses to watch: “Too much face”
Like most actors, Keira Knightley occasionally struggles to watch herself on screen.
As someone who entered the business very young, it makes complete sense that this would be the case. After all, it takes guts to be able to stand in front of any casting director with confidence and self-belief, even more so when you’re doing it at the age of six, and especially so when your first major breakthrough roles happen when you’re still only a teenager.
Even more impressive is that those roles weren’t exactly your run-of-the-mill, basic characterisations; they were fully-fledged worlds and concepts, proving Knightley to be one of the most powerful and nuanced actors of her entire generation. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, for instance, she took on at the young age of 17, a fact that still surprises many who’ve seen the film and see her capabilities as anything but amateur or juvenile.
To her credit, Knightley was quite literally the only person for the job. Not only was she a natural in front of the camera, with precisely the type of grace and elegance needed for a character as sophisticated and strong-willed as Elizabeth Swann, but producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski also took one look at her and immediately knew she had the same “quality” as classic Hollywood stars.
In a film jam-packed with intense testosterone levels, Knightley also held her own on screen, navigating male-domination both on set and in the film’s world itself with her own charm. Although that’s one of the main aspects of her character’s appeal – fighting her way in a man’s world – it takes someone just as courageous to be able to pull it off without falling to the sidelines.
Of course, much of the intensity on-screen came to life through Verbinski’s directing, a lot of which hinged on dark, meticulous visuals and a combination of big, blockbuster shots and intimate close-ups, and In Pirates, these contrasts brought you into the world while letting you in on the different nuances of each character, enhancing comedic timing and romantic afflictions outside the action.
According to Knightley, however, this was a bit much at times. In fact, that there were a lot of close-ups in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End made her feel the intensity of the spotlight, and not in the charming Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard way, either. In fact, it’s the sole reason she can’t face watching the film altogether.
“I have never seen the third one,” the actor told Scott Mills. “I saw the second one at the premiere, but I have never seen the third one.” She also admitted that she’s never seen At World’s End because there’s “too much face”, saying, “There’s just such a lot of face.” This isn’t the first time she’s reflected negatively on the franchise, having previously said the experience was “horrific” because it catapulted her to levels of fame she wasn’t prepared for.
However, Knightley’s reasoning for not wanting to see it is also understandable – for a swashbuckler, there are a fair few close-ups on her face, enough to put off even the softest of self-critics watching their own work. However, as arguably one of the best in the entire franchise, it’s also a shame that she’ll never get to experience its storytelling charm or its weirdly endearing, disjointed pacing.
