The Oscar-nominated role Keira Knightley begged her agents to avoid
In 2006, Keira Knightley was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the Academy Awards. Her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice adaptation charmed moviegoers all over the world, and the film also picked up three other nominations. Amazingly, Knightley’s nomination at only 20 years old made her the third youngest nominee in Oscar history. All in all, it was a great result for the young star – especially considering she initially didn’t even want to be considered for the role.
Knightley’s reticence to play Bennet wasn’t because she didn’t like the material, though. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In 2005, she told Chud that she had always wanted to do a period drama, purely because she was such a huge fan of Jane Austen’s classic novels. She smiled: “I love a good costume drama. There’s nothing I love more. They’re a way into complete fantasies and so romantic, so I love that kind of stuff. I do like classical things.”
So, why did Knightley not want to get involved in something she loves so much? Well, to put it bluntly, she couldn’t shake the nagging fear that she would mess up one of literature’s most enduring romantic heroines. She admitted, “I was terrified to the point where I begged my agents not to put me up for it because I’ve been so obsessed by the book.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean star continued: “When I was seven, I had all of the Austen novels on book tape, and I’d listen to them and weep. Then I saw the BBC version and I was obsessed with that. She is one of my favourite characters in English literature. I absolutely adore her. When one of my agents went, ‘Alright, you’re going to read for Elizabeth Bennet,’ I said, ‘No, don’t, I’m going to fuck it up. Please don’t do it. I couldn’t bear it if I ruined her!”
To Knightley, Austen’s greatest protagonist is “one of those characters that is everything that you want to be and everything that you are at the same time. She’s so funny and witty and intelligent. She’s the kind of person who says all of those put-downs that you walk away from situations wishing that you had said. But she’s also really annoying, and you want to…shake her and say, ‘Oh come on.’ That’s what makes her really human.”
Amazingly, Knightley was so frightened of doing a bad job that she did something very unusual – she memorized the entire cast’s lines, as well as her own! She laughed, “I was so terrified that I learned the entire script – my character and everybody else’s by heart before I started.” This was, naturally, overkill, but it spoke to a tremendous insecurity that had gotten the best of her. Thankfully, Wright was there to offer his leading lady the support she needed.
“He just kept saying that he believed in me,” revealed a grateful Knightley, “Which is amazing because all actresses are, by nature, completely insecure beings. If they say that they’re not, they’re lying. It’s a profession made out of insecurities. You’ve got to use them all. So, to have somebody say, ‘I believe in you, you can do this’ is absolutely extraordinary.”
