Keira Knightley on the dark side of fame's spotlight
Keira Knightley has spoken about the negative aspects of achieving fame at a young age, including the persecution and harassment she faced following the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean".
Keira Knightley, who gained international recognition at the age of 18 thanks to her roles in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "Love Actually", candidly discusses the difficult experiences that came with sudden popularity. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actress mentions the pressure from public opinion and the body shaming she endured.
"It’s very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing," Knightley admitted. "Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost," she added.
The actress emphasised that the role of Elizabeth Swann in "Pirates of the Caribbean" brought her not only fame but also unwanted attention and inappropriate behaviour from others. Knightley said that her "jaw dropped at time" over how she was treated by the public and "I didn’t think it was ok at the time. I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that ‘you wanted this.’ ... You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere."
Knightley pointed out that she often heard from men that she wanted to be persecuted. "They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it — it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye," she confessed.
Brutal world
The actress notes that after two decades, the situation for young girls has become even worse due to social media. "Social media has put that in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that’s been done to young women, to teenage girls," Knightley added. "Ultimately, that’s what fame is — it’s being publicly shamed. A lot of teenage girls don’t survive that."
Knightley also refers to her participation in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, where she acted alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Although she admits these films helped to establish her in Hollywood, they were also the reason she was publicly destroyed. "It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time," she remarked. "They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly."
