The Stunning Transformation Of Keira Knightley

a mental breakdown forgetting her role in one of the biggest movies of her career what almost led to her retirement kieran knightley's lifelong transformation will shock and surprise you some people struggle for years to figure out what to do with their lives while others are blessed to know exactly what they want to do from a young age nightly falls squarely in the latter category when she was just three she told her parents that she wanted to have an agent her mother charmin mcdonald is an actress and writer while her dad will nightly is an actor so little kyra was certain that she wanted a creative career as she recalled to the independent in 2012 agents were always phoning the house and i answered the phone and it was quite exciting when they phoned up nightly wasn't allowed to get an agent until she was seven but she soon found success as she was just eight when she landed her first tv gig an episode of the british anthology series screen one while nightly started acting as a kid school was always her top priority her parents made sure that showbiz didn't take over her life so she was limited to small jobs over her summer breaks this served two purposes it allowed her to have a normal childhood and it also gave her an incentive to manage her dyslexia which she was diagnosed with as a child as she recounted to the independent the headteacher of my school told my parents get her to do acting but tell her she is not allowed to do it unless the grades go up it was that that led to the getting over of the dyslexia and starting to read and working very hard after years of small appearances and shows and films nightly landed a role in one of the biggest movies in the galaxy that would be 1999's star wars episode 1 the phantom menace as she played the handmaiden sabe when she was 12 years old it may have been quite the opportunity for a young actor but alas it sounds like nightly didn't exactly have the best time on set during an interview with total film she revealed that she doesn't remember much about her role in the film apart from having to wear an uncomfortable headdress as she put it i remember being in the background for such a long time that i'd actually fallen asleep i was just sitting in a chair and i was in the background but i couldn't keep my eyes open and apparently nightly didn't even remember her character's name as she apparently thought she'd played natalie portman's part of padme amidala as she admitted to coming soon in 2020 do you know i saw the film once when i think i was 12 when i did it and i saw it the year after and i've never seen it again i didn't know what i was doing when i got it because they just said that nobody give you gives you scripts it's all very secret nightly racked up a few more acting credits in the years right after phantom menace but it wasn't until 2002's bend it like beckham that she truly established herself as a force to be reckoned with the indie film tells the story of a young british indian teenager who defies her parents and joins a semi-pro soccer team it was a critical favorite and a hit with audiences as it raked in 76 million dollars at the worldwide box office knightley played jules the best friend and teammate of lead character jess while it was surely exciting to star in her first major role her performance was panned by some critics knightley wasn't hurt by the criticism though as she believed that it was actually well deserved as she admitted to radio times in 2007 i didn't go to drama school so i didn't get the training it was difficult to get over that what am i doing i'm pretending that i can do this and everybody's telling me i can't bend it like beckham made a lot of moviegoers pay attention to nightly but it was her turn as elizabeth swann in the pirates of the caribbean franchise that made her a household name in 2003 she joined the series for its first entry the curse of the black pearl this was clearly a major victory for nightly's career but she had no idea how successful it would become at the time as richard curtis who directed nightly in love actually recalled to radio times i remember keira knightley saying that her next project was some pirate thing probably a disaster of course we know that characterization couldn't have been further from the truth becoming a household name at the age of 18 was a mixed bag for nightly who struggled with the pressures of fame you were that young then i was i was that young then but she wouldn't change anything as she told variety in 2018 i'm unbelievably lucky now and my career is in a place where i really enjoy it and i have a level of fame that's much less intense i can deal with it now and that's great but at the time it was not so great and took many years of therapy to figure it out despite her early success nightly wasn't always taken seriously at the start of her career she had several roles under her belt by the time she reached her teens but many people thought that she was just a beautiful woman who had lucked into acting even worse the negativity led to nightly herself doubting her own talent as she recalled to l in 2006 for ages and ages everybody was going oh she's just a pretty face she absolutely can't act and i was always going well maybe they're right i don't know but nightly's turn as elizabeth bennett in the 2005 adaptation of jane austen's pride and prejudice soon changed all that she was nominated for an oscar for the role which helped her to command more respect she also truly enjoyed bringing the iconic literary figure to life as she really identified with the character furthermore as she noted to popentertainment.com when people read the book and hopefully when they see the film they will see aspects of themselves in that character that you were the last man in the world i could ever be prevailed upon to marry nightly's slim frame has led to a lot of speculation over the years about how she stays so thin as her fame grew rumors began to fly that she was living with an eating disorder the gossip was so widespread that she sued the daily mail for libel in 2007 after the tabloid ran a story of a teenager whose anorexia led to her death and also included a picture of nightly in a bikini the headline of that article read if pictures like this one of keira carried a health warning my darling daughter might have lived nightly was awarded 3 000 pounds in damages with the some donated to charity in response to the speculation she's been adamant that she's just naturally thin as she's explained to the press her grandmother and great-grandmother both had eating disorders and she takes the illness seriously but her own physique is just how she's built as she explained to people magazine in 2006 i'm not saying there aren't people in the film industry that suffer from it because i am sure that there are but i'm quite sure i don't have it the media scrutiny related to fame took a toll on knightley's mental health and nearly led to her early retirement as she admitted on the hollywood reporters awards chatter podcast in 2018 she had a mental breakdown when she was 22. at one point she didn't leave her house for several months eventually she decided that she needed to take a year off from acting to focus on her mental health and go to therapy after being diagnosed with ptsd being buffeted by those storms at that age i found very very very difficult nightly ultimately returned to acting after addressing her mental health but it was a close call as she nearly quit altogether as she admitted to metro in 2010 i wasn't enjoying what i was doing and i felt terribly guilty about that i remember hating the idea that i was in a privileged position and couldn't see the point of any of it after getting treatment for her mental health and returning to work nightly was thriving both professionally and personally she landed a string of major roles in the likes of such films as never let me go seeking a friend for the end of the world and anna karenina she also fell in love as she married english musician james wrighton in 2013 after two years of dating in a quiet ceremony when she was 28. nightly takes a pragmatic view towards marriage looking to her parents as a model as she disclosed to glamour in 2014 they only got married to get a mortgage but when james proposed i just thought well never done that before it seemed like a fun thing to do nightly's reasons for marrying writing were also certainly practical as she put it to glamour suppose something happens to your other half and you can't get into the hospital without that legal paper nevertheless the couple appeared to be happily in love as knightly put it to glamour uk you only get to choose one member of your family and i made a good choice so well done me nightly leads a rather relaxed life these days in 2015 she became a mom for the first time and now she and her husband have a total of two daughters edie and delilah but her career hasn't exactly slowed down since becoming a mom she starred in a string of films like the nutcracker and the four realms the aftermath and silent night motherhood has even helped her dodge the paparazzi as she joked to balance in 2019 there's nothing sexy about trying to control a three-year-old so i'm pretty much left alone now and then you think oh i'm the best parent in the world because and then three happens of course there are also new challenges now for nightly juggling a film career with her home life is no easy feat as she admitted to hello giggles in 2020 when she has to leave her kids for work the guilt is absolutely constant that being said she's tired of a certain double standard as she wonders why it's only working women who are asked how they find a way to balance their careers with parenthood as she put it why do we not expect a working man to be looking after their children as much as their partner is why do we assume that they don't feel guilty about not spending enough time with their children as well growing older is something that scares a lot of people and it can be especially frightening for women in hollywood but keira knightley isn't worried about getting older as she instead hopes to age gracefully as she put it to the daily mail in 2019 i walk down the street and i see women with amazing gray hair and the lines on their face and i think it's the story of their life and i love it and i feel empowered by it and that's what i want to be when i grow up that's not to say that nightly doesn't feel a rush of panic when she finds a gray hair but that has more to do with the fact that getting older and becoming a different version of yourself can be daunting even if you're happy with your appearance as she explained you think you know what your body is and what your face is then suddenly it changes overall nightly has become more secure in who she is as an actress and she's learned how to handle her fame as she noted to glamour uk in 2014 after 25 things just got better and better maybe you stop caring as much about where you should be going and what other people think which is all that makes you very unhappy early on check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more list videos about your favorite stars are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music] you

Channel: The List

Views: 45,726

Keywords: the list, keira knightly, transformation, actress, stunning transformation

Id: cD01bC2YmZY

Length: 10min 32sec (632 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 30 2022