INTRO:
Keira Christina Knightley (born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and
model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002
after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham. From 2003, her appearances
in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series took her to much greater
prominence, but her work in Pride and Prejudice is what took her to true
stardom.
Knightley has appeared in several Hollywood films and earned nominations
for the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress
for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of Jane
Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. Two years later she again was nominated for
the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best
Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Atonement.
In 2008, Forbes claimed Knightley to be the second highest paid actress in
Hollywood, having reportedly earned $32 million in 2007, making her the only
non-American on the list of highest paid actresses.
EARLY LIFE:
Knightley was born in Teddington, London, England, the daughter of Sharman
MacDonald, an award-winning playwright, and Will Knightley, a theatre and
television actor. Her father is English and her Scottish mother is of half
Welsh ancestry. She has an elder brother, Caleb. Knightley, born Kiera,
switched her name to Keira to make it easier for international audiences to pronounce.
Knightley lived in Richmond, attending Stanley Junior School, Teddington
School and Esher College.[citation needed] She was diagnosed with dyslexia at
the age of six, but nevertheless was successful in school and was thus
permitted to acquire a talent agent and pursue an acting career. She requested
an agent as early as the age of three and got one when she turned six, from her
mother as a reward for studying hard. Knightley has noted that she was
"single-minded about acting" during her childhood. She performed in a
number of local amateur productions, including After Juliet (written by her
mother) and United States (written by her then drama teacher, Ian McShane, no
relation to the actor of the same name). She focused on art, history, and
English literature while at Esher, but left after a year to focus on her acting
and she also turned down her spot at the London Academy of Music and Drama.
CAREER:
After getting an agent at 6, she did work mostly on commercials and small
TV roles. Her first role was "Little Girl" in Royal Celebration, a
1993 TV movie. A year later, she had a small role in the movie A Village
Affair. She later starred in 1995's Innocent Lies and 1998's Coming Home. She
was a princess in the 1996 movie The Treasure Seekers. Later in 1999, she appeared
as Rose in Oliver Twist.
Keira Knightley appeared in several television films in the mid to late
1990s—as well as ITV1's The Bill[15]—before being cast as Sabé, Padmé Amidala's
decoy, in the 1999 science fiction blockbuster Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom
Menace. Sabé's dialogue was dubbed over with Natalie Portman's voice. This was
to hide the fact that the handmaiden Padmé (played by Natalie Portman) was actually
disclosed as the real Queen Amidala at the end of the film. Knightley was cast
in the role due to her close resemblance to Portman; even the two actresses'
mothers had difficulty telling their daughters apart when the girls were in
full makeup.
Knightley's first starring role followed in 2001, when she played the
daughter of Robin Hood in the made-for-television Walt Disney Productions
feature, Princess of Thieves. She trained for several weeks in archery, sword fighting,
and horse riding. During this time, Knightley also appeared in The Hole, a
thriller that received a direct-to-video release in the United States. She
appeared in a miniseries adaptation of Doctor Zhivago which first aired in 2002
to mixed reviews but high ratings.[citation needed] In the same year, she also
was in the movie Pure, in which she portrays a pregnant teenager who is a
heroin addict and had a child taken by social services. Knightley's
breakthrough role was in the football-themed film, Bend It Like Beckham, which
was a success in its August 2002 UK release, grossing $18 million, and in its
March 2003 U.S. release, grossing $32 million.
After Bend It Like Beckham's UK release raised her profile, she was cast in
the big budget action film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl (along with Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp) which was produced by Jerry
Bruckheimer and opened in July 2003 to positive reviews and high box office
grosses, becoming one of the biggest hits of summer 2003 and cementing
Knightley as the new "It" girl.
Knightley had a role in the British romantic comedy Love Actually, which
opened in November 2003, which co-starred her childhood idol Emma Thompson. Her
next film, King Arthur, opened in July 2004 to negative reviews, however in
preparation for the role she took boxing, fighting, archery, and
horseback-riding lessons for four days a week for three months. In the same
month, Knightley was voted by readers of Hello! magazine as the film industry's
most promising teen star. Additionally, TIME magazine noted in a 2004 feature
that Knightley seemed dedicated to developing herself as a serious actress
rather than a film star.
She appeared in three films in 2005, the first of which was The Jacket,
alongside Adrien Brody. She next appeared in Tony Scott's Domino, an action
film based on the life of bounty hunter Domino Harvey. The film has been
Knightley's greatest critical flop to date. Knightley's critics often suggested
she was nothing more than a pretty face, which led the young starlet to comment
to Elle magazine, "I always feel like I’m the one with everything to
prove."
Pride & Prejudice rounded out 2005. Knightley loved the book since she
was seven, and she with her first acting paycheck she bought a dollhouse of the
hero's mansion. She said of her character, "The beauty of Elizabeth is
that every woman who ever reads the book seems to recognize herself, with all
her faults and imperfections. If you give an actress who is even remotely good
the chance to play a fantastic character like that, they are going to revel in
it." Variety wrote about her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet: "Looking
every bit a star, Knightley, who's shown more spirit than acting smarts so far
in her career, really steps up to the plate here, holding her own against the
more classically trained Matthew Macfadyen, as well as vets like Brenda
Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Penelope Wilton, and Judi Dench with a luminous
strength that recalls a young Audrey Hepburn. More than the older Jennifer Ehle
in the TV series, she catches Elizabeth's essential skittishness and youthful
braggadocio, making her final conversion all the more moving." The film
grossed more than $100 million worldwide, and Knightley earned a Golden Globe
nomination and an Oscar nomination (the Oscar ultimately went to Reese
Witherspoon). The Academy Award nomination made her the third-youngest performer
ever nominated. BAFTA's decision not to nominate her drew criticism from Pride
& Prejudice producer Tim Bevan.
In 2006, Knightley was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences. Her biggest financial hit thus far, Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man's Chest, was released in July 2006.
Knightley starred in three major films in 2007: Silk, an adaptation of the
novel by Alessandro Baricco, Atonement, a feature film adaptation of Ian
McEwan's novel of the same name (co-starring James McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave,
and Brenda Blethyn), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was released
in May 2007. For her performance in Atonement, Knightley was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award in the Best Dramatic Actress category for the role, as well
as a BAFTA Award. Critic Richard Roeper was puzzled by both Knightley's and
McAvoy's Academy Award snubs, stating "I thought McAvoy and Knightley were
superb."
In 2008, Knightley appeared in The Edge of Love with Cillian Murphy as her
husband, Matthew Rhys as her childhood sweetheart Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, and
Sienna Miller as Thomas' wife Caitlin Macnamara. She received positive reviews
for her role. The film was penned by Knightley's mother, Sharman Macdonald, and
directed by John Maybury. She then filmed The Duchess, based on the
best-selling biography, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman, in
which she played Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire; the film was
released in cinemas on 5 September 2008 in the U.K.
In 2009, Knightley made her West End debut in Martin Crimp's version of
Molière's comedy, The Misanthrope, at the Comedy Theatre in London alongside
Damian Lewis, Tara FitzGerald, and Dominic Rowan. in December 2009. Reviews for
her portrayal of Jennifer in the play were generally positive. The Daily
Telegraph described her performance as revealing "both power and
poignancy" and The Independent called her performance "not only
strikingly convincing but, at times, rather thrilling in its satiric
aplomb" The Guardian, however, noted that due to the nature of the role
"one could say that she is not unduly stretched" and The Daily Mail
described her as "little better than adequate" and "dull"
and the Daily Express stated that "Her lack of stage experience is
sometimes painfully evident." Knightley has been nominated for the
Laurence Olivier Award as Best Supporting Actress as Jennifer in The
Misanthrope, recognising her theatre debut. Knightley also received an Evening
Standard Award nomination for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress.
In 2010, Knightley appeared in the drama Last Night, in which she
co-starred with Eva Mendes, Sam Worthington, and Guillaume Canet; it was directed
by Massy Tadjedin. The same year, Knightley completed work on an adaptation of Kazuo
Ishiguro's dystopian novel, Never Let Me Go with Andrew Garfield and Carey
Mulligan. Filming took place in Norfolk and Clevedon in Somerset. Also in 2010,
she starred in London Boulevard with Colin Farrell, written by William Monahan.
Knightley's only film of 2011 was David Cronenberg's historical drama A
Dangerous Method, co-starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent
Cassel. Based on writer Christopher Hampton's 2002 stage play The Talking Cure
and set on the eve of World War I, the film depicts the turbulent relationships
between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freud, and Sabina
Spielrein, played by Knightley, the troubled but beautiful young psychoanalyst
who comes between them. The costume film premiered at the 68th Venice
International Film Festival to a positive reception, while Knightley, who had
almost backed out of the movie due to its explicit scenes, earned generally
favorable reviews by critics, with Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com noting her "the
real star of this film."
Knightley is slated to appear in The Emperor's Children with Rachel
McAdams, Emma Thompson and Richard Gere. The film, a dark comedy, was written
by Noah Baumbach and will be directed by Scott Cooper. In addition, she has
reunited with director Joe Wright for the production of Anna Karenina (2012),
in which she will star as the title character.
MODELLING:
