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Keira Knightley - Biography |
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Keira Christina Knightley was born
in the South London suburb of Richmond on March 26th 1985. She is the
daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwright Sharman
Macdonald. An older brother, Caleb, was born in 1979. Brought up immersed
in the acting profession from both sides - writing and performing - it is
little wonder that the young Keira asked for her own agent at the age of
three. She was granted one at the age of six and performed in her first TV
role as Little Girl in "Screen One: Royal Celebration (#5.4)" (1993), aged
seven. It was discovered at an early age that Keira had severe
difficulties in reading and writing. She was not officially dyslexic as
she never sat the formal tests required of the British Dyslexia
Association. Instead she worked incredibly hard, encouraged by her family,
until the problem had been overcome by her early teens.
Her first multi-scene performance came in A Village Affair (1994), an
adaptation of the lesbian love story by Joanna Trollope. This was followed
by small parts in British crime series "The Bill" (1984), an exiled German
princess in The Treasure Seekers (1996) (TV) and a much more substantial
role as the young Judith Dunbar in Giles Foster's adaptation of Rosamunde
Pilcher's novel Coming Home (1998) (TV), alongside Peter O'Toole, Penelope
Keith and Joanna Lumley. The first time Keira's name was mentioned around
the world was when it was revealed (in a plot twist kept secret by
director George Lucas) that she played Natalie Portman's decoy Padme to
Portman's Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).
It was several years before agreement was reached over which scenes
featured Keira as the queen and which Natalie! Keira had no formal
training as an actress and did it out of pure enjoyment. She went to an
ordinary council-run school in nearby Teddington and had no idea what she
wanted to do when she left. By now she was beginning to receive far more
substantial roles and was starting to turn work down as one project and
her schoolwork was enough to contend with. She reappeared on British
television in 1999 as Rose Fleming in Alan Bleasdale's faithful reworking
of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" (1999) (mini), and travelled to Romania
to film her first title role in Disney's Princess of Thieves (2001) (TV)
in which she played Robin Hood's daughter Gwyn.
Keira's first serious boyfriend was her Thieves co-star Del Synnott, and
they later co-starred in Peter Hewitt's 'work of fart' Thunderpants
(2002). Nick Hamm's dark thriller The Hole (2001) kept her busy during
2000, and featured her first nude scene (15 at the time, the film was not
released until she was 16 years old).
In the summer of 2001, while Keira studied and sat her final school exams
(she received six As) she filmed a movie about an Asian girl's (Parminder
Nagra) love for football and the prejudices she has to overcome regarding
both her culture and her religion.) Bend It Like Beckham (2002) was a
smash hit in football-mad Britain but it had to wait until another of
Keira's films propelled it to the top end of the US box office. Bend It
cost just £3.5m to make, and nearly £1m of that came from the British
Lottery. It took £11m in the UK and has since gone on to score more than
US$76m worldwide. Meanwhile, Keira had started A-levels at Esher College,
studying Classics, English Literature and Political History, but continued
to take acting roles which she thought would widen her experience as an
actress. The story of a drug-addicted waitress and her friendship with the
young son of a drug-addict, Pure (2002), occupied Keira from January to
March 2002. Also at this time, Keira's first attempt at Shakespeare was
filmed. She played Helena in a modern interpretation of a scene from A
Midsummer Night's Dream entitled The Seasons Alter (2002). This was
commissioned by environmental organisation Futerra, of which Keira's
mother is patron. Keira received no fee for this performance, or for
another short film, New Year's Eve (2002), by award-winning director Colin
Spector.
But it was a chance encounter with producer Andy Harries at the London
premiere of Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) which forced Keira to leave her
studies and pursue acting full-time. The meeting lead to an audition for
the role of Larisa Feodorovna Guishar - the classic heroine of Boris
Pasternak' 's novel _"Doctor Zhivago" (2002) (mini)_ , played famously in
the David Lean movie by Julie Christie. This was to be a big-budget TV
movie with a screenplay written by Andrew Davies. Keira won the part and
the mini-series was filmed throughout the Spring of 2002 in Slovakia,
co-starring Sam Neill and Hans Matheson as Yuri Zhivago. Keira rounded off
2002 with a few scenes in the first movie to be directed by Blackadder and
Vicar of Dibley writer Richard Curtis. Called Love Actually (2003), Keira
played Juliet, a newlywed whose husband's Best Man is secretly besotted
with her.
A movie filmed after Love Actually but released before it was to make the
world sit up and take notice of this beautiful fresh-faced young actress
with a cute British accent. It was a movie which Keira very nearly missed
out on altogether. Auditions were held in London for a new blockbuster
movie called Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
(2003), but heavy traffic in the city forced Keira to be tagged on to the
end of the day's auditions list. It helped - she got the part. Filming
took place in Los Angeles and the Caribbean from October 2002 to March
2003 and was released to massive box office success and almost universal
acclaim in the July of that year. Meanwhile, a small British film called
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) had sneaked onto a North American release
slate and was hardly setting the box office alight. But Keira's dominance
in Pirates had set tongues wagging and questions being asked about the
actress playing Elizabeth Swann. Almost too late, Bend It's distributors
realised one of its two stars was the same girl whose name was on
everyone's lips due to Pirates, and took the unusual step of re-releasing
Bend It to 1,000 screens across the US, catapulting it from no. 26 back up
to no. 12. Pirates, meanwhile, was fighting off all contenders at the top
spot, and stayed in the Top 3 for an incredible 21 weeks.
It was perhaps no surprise, then, that Keira was on producer Jerry
Bruckheimer's wanted list for the part of Guinevere in a planned accurate
telling of the legend of King Arthur. Filming took place in Ireland and
Wales from June to November 2003. In July Keira had become celebrity face
of British jeweller and luxury goods retailer Asprey.
At a photoshoot for the company on Long island New York in August Keira
met and fell in love with Northern Irish model Jamie Dornan. King Arthur
(2004) was released in July 2004 to lukewarm reviews. It seems audiences
wanted the legend after all, and not necessarily the truth. Keira became
the breakout star and 'one to watch in 2004' throughout the world's media
at the end of 2003.
Keira's 2004 started off in Scotland and Canada filming John Maybury's
time-travelling thriller The Jacket (2005) with Oscar-winner Adrien Brody.
A planned movie of Deborah Moggach's novel, Tulip Fever, about forbidden
love in 17th Century Amsterdam, was cancelled in February after the
British government suddenly closed tax loopholes which allowed filmmakers
to claw back a large proportion of their expenditure. Due to star Keira
and Jude Law in the main roles, the film remains mothballed. Instead,
Keira spent her time wisely, visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the Comic
Relief charity, and spending summer at various grandiose locations around
the UK filming what promises to be a faithful adaptation of Jane Austen's
classic novel Pride & Prejudice (2005), alongside Matthew Macfadyen as Mr.
Darcy, and with Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench in supporting roles.
In October 2004, Keira received her first major accolade, the Hollywood
Film Award for Best Breakthrough Actor - Female. The remainder of 2004 saw
Keira once again trying a completely new genre, this time the part-fact,
part-fiction life story of model turned bounty hunter Domino (2005). Her
pre-contracted sequel clause from the original Pirates movie meant the
production of not one, but two sequels were already in the works.
Pre-production started in February, and Keira started filming - again in
Los Angeles and the Caribbean - from mid-March onwards. Filming is
expected to wrap in January of 2006 with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Man's Chest (2006) due for a Summer 2006 release and Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World's End (2007) for Summer 2007. |
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Keira Knightley - Personal Quotes |
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"The problem for me was that
by being in the film the magic was broken. I loved the first Star
Wars film and my mum was really into it too, that's why I took the
part. But the Force wasn't there when we were filming it, and they
didn't have real light sabres, which annoyed me."
About wearing a corset on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the
Black Pearl (2003): "I had a Scarlett O'Hara thing, she gets her
waist down to 18 and a half inches--so I thought I would try that.
For five minutes, it's fantastic--you have this tiny waist and
fantastic cleavage, but oxygen deprivation is a big problem!"
(About kissing Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse
of the Black Pearl (2003)) There were these teen-aged girls off-cam,
and they were ready to kill me because I kissed Orlando Bloom!
"I feel less blonde now and, er, smarter!"
"There's no point having an 18th birthday in America."
"I've always been a snob about qualifications."
on Bend It Like Beckham (2002): "I thought there would be
doubles--stunt doubles--and I would just run in for the close-ups,
but unfortunately they didn't have the money for that."
(After being called the new Hayley Mills) "That was cruel! Nothing
against Hayley Mills, but I'm trying to be cool here. I'm trying to
be edgy".
"Do you know that on all the sets I've been on, nobody has ever made
a pass at me?"
(on shoes) "I see a pair of shoes I adore, and it doesn't matter if
they have them in my size. I buy them anyway."
(On "The View" (1997)) "I met Barbara Walters backstage and didn't
know who she was. She's an American phenomenon, I was told later.
I'm just sooo English".
(at a photo shoot) "I'm a hooker in these pictures, and I must be a
high priced one because I'm staying at the Ritz, which is good."
"I'm a tomboy beanpole? I can't use a computer, so maybe I'm a bit
out of the loop. I don't know whether to be flattered or not
flattered. The beanpole bit, is that good? Can you be a sexy
beanpole?"
"Katharine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh are my heroes. Not because of
their ability, but because of their perseverance".
"When in doubt, faint."
on making Love Actually (2003): "We had kind of done all our wedding
and we felt like the stars of the show, then sudden you've got all
these other people with story lines and you think: Excuse me, I know
you're Alan Rickman, but get out of my film, please, thank you."
I know for a fact the work is going to dry up, and people will get
bored of me. That's not bitterness, just the truth.
(On her conception) I was a bet. My mum was desperate for another
child, and my dad told her that the only way they could afford to
have one was if she sold a play. So Mum wrote When I Was a Girl, I
Used to Scream and Shout.
I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think
my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets
better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but
I don't think I've completely made it.
As a moviegoer and a woman, I want to see that, so it's great to get
to play parts like that. But Guinevere is a terrifying creature. If
I saw a battle, I'd run in the other direction. I'm not strong in
that way at all. But I'm certainly someone who has always known what
I wanted and tried to get it.
In this business, fame lasts for a second. You can be blown up and
be blown down. People keep losing interest in faces because new ones
come along every single second. I'm one at the moment. Tomorrow I
won't be. That's cool. I'm not saying that when it does end, I'll be
like, 'Yay! It's ending.' But I'll move on and do something else
because that's what has to be done. It's about survival. If you're
sad about it, then you're in the wrong job.
(On actresses living in Hollywood) I take my hat off to actresses
there, particularly the young ones, because the emphasis is on
trying to find perfection. But I think it's the imperfections in
people that make them perfect. I don't find perfect faces very
interesting.
Acting requires me to be very observant, which means being able to
sit in cafes for hours and watch people.
"I don't have a problem with my body. I'm not just going to strip
off all my clothing, but if the part calls for it and I don't think
there's any way round, I'm absolutely fine."
"I'm a bit of a tomboy so the action stuff was fantastic."
It's also strange when people recognise you in the street and they
know you but you don't know them. It's a little weird, but nothing
to complain about.
"I'd wanted to get stuck into the action on Pirates of the Caribbean
and I asked Jerry [Jerry Bruckheimer if I could have a sword fight
in that, and he more than made up for it in King Arthur (2004) by
giving me axe fights, knife fights, and all the rest of it. I
absolutely loved it. It was like being 11 years old and in the
playground again."
"It was part of the job. There's no point in being embarrassed about
it, because that is the name of the game. It was just another day at
the office. A very nice day at the office." [On the love scene with
Clive Owen in King Arthur (2004)]
I don't think about nutrition. The very thought of a diet makes me
want chips and ice cream. And I just hate going to the gym. I cannot
stand it.
The fact that we haven't focused on the love triangle between
Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere was actually one of the things that
made me want to do the film. It's interesting to tell it in a
completely new way.
"Every part I've ever got, I always thought it was completely
ridiculous that I was up for it. With Pirates, I only packed for a
week because I was sure that I was going to get sacked. I thought
they'd made the hugest mistake."
"We're all fans of cinema, you know. Forget about being an actor, I
love watching films. I really do. That's what I love doing, as a
hobby. I find the whole process fascinating, as do my parents, they
go to the cinema a lot."
"I don't do a thing to keep fit, I just cannot make myself work out.
My abs are just luck - my mum has good ones so it's a family trait."
"I don't read any magazines or newspapers any more, because I find
it really scary and I get really scared when I'm followed by
photographers. I have, on many occasions, broken down in tears
because I find it terrifying. I dropped out of school when I was 16
so there's nothing else that I can do."
"I don't like parties very much. I'm not a very sociable being."
"I've always been quite tomboyish."
"In LA, I'm twice the size- height and everything else- of most of
the other actresses who are going for an audition."
"I think I always disappoint people because they always expect
someone very pretty, very done."
"Three years after that I was diagnosed as dyslexic, and we struck a
deal: I was allowed to start acting on condition that I would read
constantly and get good grades at school."
"I always feel like I'm the one with everything to prove."
"I paint and draw, but very badly."
Talking about her possibly being anorexic: "I've got a lot of
experience with anorexia. It was in my family. My grandmother, and
my great-grandmother suffered from it and I had a lot of friends at
school who suffer from it so I don't think it's anything to be taken
lightly."
"A newspaper here voted me one of the scruffiest people in Britain.
I'm quite proud of that. It's completely true."
"I suppose I'm more of a tomboy than the girly-girl, which is why I
can't walk on stilettos very well."
"I do remember, at six, thinking I should be earning my own living.
My mum says I was born 45."
"The most fantastic date I've ever had was going bowling, because I
don't bowl and I'm awful."
"There are pressures to conform to a certain type, tall, blonde,
thin, big breasts, you know - The Type."
"Last year I went to the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars and I
stood in the corner and had a lot of champagne. It's very, very
scary."
"I'm dyslexic, and at six years old they realized I couldn't read a
word and had been fooling them. My mum said to me: 'If you come to
me with a book in your hand and a smile on your face every day
through the summer holiday, I'll get you an agent.' "
"I don't court attention, which is why I've never been to nightclubs
like Chinawhite."
"I'm not a social person, so I really have very few friends in the
business."
"To be honest, I'd sooner be with my mates having a pint."
"If I have a dark side, I haven't discovered it yet. How very boring
of me."
"Producers usually hire a stylist for me when I got to premieres
because they think I'm so pathetic."
"I'm incredibly self-conscious about my body."
"There's no individuality on the red carpet. That's why I loved
Björk's Oscar swan dress. I wish I had the courage."
[Guinevere] "She's very manipulative and calculating and would use
whomever to get her own way, whether it was with her sexuality or by
killing someone. It felt very empowering playing her!"
"People send over dresses for me to wear to these functions, but I
often feel like a 5-year-old in my mom's clothes. So I just wear
jeans and a top every single time."
"People said to me yesterday, 'How does it feel to be anorexic?' I
had no idea that I was. I can safely say that I'm not. I've got a
lot of experience with anorexia. My grandmother and
great-grandmother suffered from it. In a way it's good that it's out
there and people are talking about it. It's quite interesting
because it's normally high-achieving women who suffer from it
because, I guess, they're control freaks."
"Nudity frightens me, but I will do it when I think it's necessary -
or when it makes me giggle."
"The most exercise I do is turning on the television."
"I'm naturally an extremely lazy person, so if someone did
everything for me, I really think I would do nothing at all."
"I don't read anything and I don't look at newspapers. It's too
weird, so I'm not really aware of hype anywhere."
I think I always disappoint people, because they always expect
someone very pretty. Very done. There's so much pressure to be thin,
blonde and busty. I'm skinny, but even I couldn't fit into some of
the clothes there (in L.A.)!" In a funny kind of way, I think you
create it yourself. I think it's much better to go with the flow and
embrace your body, whatever shape it is, and just be happy.
"The Celts would've been fighting naked and painted blue, but there
was no way I was going to do that. Having a bare midriff and running
around killing people was fun. But you don't want to see boobs
bumping up and down on a battlefield. It would be distracting" On
modesty over historical accuracy in King Arthur (2004). |
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Keira Knightley - Filmography |
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The Duchess (2008) ....
Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire
The Edge of Love (2008) .... Vera Phillips
Silk (2007) .... Helene Joncour
... aka Seta (Italy)
... aka Soie (France)
Atonement (2007) .... Cecilia Tallis
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) .... Elizabeth Swann
... aka P.O.T.C. 3 (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Pirates 3 (USA: informal short title)
A Journey Behind the Scenes of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's
End' (2007) (TV) .... Elizabeth Swann
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) .... Elizabeth
Swann
... aka P.O.T.C. 2 (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Pirates 2 (USA: informal short title)
... aka Rummty II (Philippines: English title: review title)
Stories of Lost Souls (2006) .... Leah (segment New Year's Eve)
... aka Historias de almas perdidas (Argentina: DVD title)
Domino (2005) .... Domino Harvey
Pride & Prejudice (2005) .... Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Bennet
... aka Orgueil et préjugés (France)
The Jacket (2005) .... Jackie Price
King Arthur (2004) .... Guinevere
... aka King Arthur: Director's Cut (USA: DVD title (director's
cut))
Love Actually (2003) .... Juliet
Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) (VG) (voice) .... Narrator
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) ....
Elizabeth Swann
... aka P.O.T.C. (USA: promotional abbreviation)
Gaijin (2003) (V) (voice) .... Kate
The Seasons Alter (2002) .... Helena
Doctor Zhivago (2002) (TV) .... Lara Antipova (neé Guishar)
New Year's Eve (2002) .... Leah
Pure (2002) .... Louise
Thunderpants (2002) (uncredited) .... Music School Student
... aka Donderbroek (Netherlands)
... aka Incroyable histoire de Patrick Smash, L' (France)
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) .... Juliette 'Jules' Paxton
... aka Kick It Like Beckham (Germany)
The Hole (2001) .... Frances 'Frankie' Almond Smith
... aka After the Hole (USA)
Princess of Thieves (2001) (TV) .... Gwyn
Deflation (2001) .... Jogger
"Oliver Twist" (1999) (mini) TV Series (as Kiera Knightley) ....
Rose Fleming
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) .... Sabé
... aka Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace (USA: video box title)
... aka The Phantom Menace (USA: short title)
Coming Home (1998) (TV) .... Young Judith
... aka Heimkehr (Germany)
... aka Rosamunde Pilcher - Heimkehr (Germany)
The Treasure Seekers (1996) (TV) .... The Princess
Innocent Lies (1995) .... Young Celia
... aka Péchés mortels, Les (France)
"The Bill" .... Sheena Rose (1 episode, 1995)
- Swan Song (1995) TV Episode .... Sheena Rose
A Village Affair (1994) .... Natasha Jordan
"Screen One" .... Little Girl (1 episode, 1993)
- Royal Celebration (1993) TV Episode .... Little Girl |
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Keira Knightley - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Keira Knightley
YouTube: Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley at Celebs, Inc.
Keira Knightley at Babemania.com
Top Celebrities Sites:
The Celebrity
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