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Articles: Knightley of the Round Table

Posted by admin on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 01:15 AM

In just one year, Keira Knightley has gone from a damsel in distress to a warrior queen. In the same 12 months, the 19-year-old beauty has graduated from virtual anonymity to become Britain's biggest female superstar since Kate Winslet set sail on the Titanic.
Before she joined Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom in producer Jerry Bruckheimer's comic romp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Knightley was best known as the rebellious teen soccer player in Bend it Like Beckham. Bruckheimer's King Arthur opened yesterday on the shoulders of Knightley's Guinevere, rather than Clive Owen's Arthur or Ioan Gruffudd's Lancelot. The men may be respected thespians, but Knightley is the movie star. "There's no question more people recognize me than ever before, but certainly not everyone, so I don't know if I qualify for movie star status," Knightley says with as much modesty as she can muster. "The drawback is that I now have men in cars with blacked-out windows following me around." Knightley insists she is astonished by her fame. "I never imagined this kind of career, let alone dreamed of it. I was certainly not pursuing a career in film. I was trained for theatre. The movie thing came by accident." Her father, Will Knightley, is a British stage and TV actor and her mother, Sharman Macdonald, an actor and playwright. "I just assumed I would be following in my parents' footsteps." As a child, Knightley starred in several British TV shows, which led to her being cast as Sabe, Natalie Portman's royal decoy in Star Wars -- Episode I: The Phantom Menace. She received no billing to preserve the advance illusion that Portman's Queen Amidala was in mortal danger. "One film role seemed to lead to another and here I am." Knightley is determined to be realistic about her sudden and enviable status. "It's all really a puff of smoke. My celebrity won't last long, but I'm certainly not complaining." Two months ago, Knightley bought a $1.5-million US apartment in London's posh Mayfair district. It was rumoured she had moved in with Irish model Jamie Dornan, 21, her on-again, off-again boyfriend for two years. "I purchased a flat, but I am not living there alone or with anyone at the moment," she says, coyly refusing to discuss the relationship. "Everything that could possibly go wrong in a flat went wrong in mine, so I am back living with my parents until all the repairs are completed." Knightley says Bruckheimer began talking to her about playing Guinevere while they were working on Pirates of the Caribbean. "Once he had decided that Clive was going to be his Arthur, he had us do some screen tests together. He was pleased enough that we made a credible couple to offer me the role." Knightley says the next thing Bruckheimer asked was that she bulk up a little and begin some rigorous training. "I agreed that Guinevere had to be more physical than any character I've played, so I went on a weight training program and took boxing lessons." Three months before shooting commenced in Ireland, Knightley also began lessons in archery, horseback riding, knife-throwing and sword fighting. "Our Guinevere is actually a guerrilla leader. She's calculating and manipulative and an accomplished fighter. She is not the Guinevere of Camelot or Excalibur." Though the posters for King Arthur feature images of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, implying the famous love triangle is part of the film, it does not exist. "Guinevere looks at both Arthur and Lancelot with the intention of using the one who looks like the best ally for her (forest) people. "She has a sexual attraction to both men, but she doesn't see Lancelot as a viable lover." Knightley's skimpy leather outfit has been the subject of much debate on the Internet, with comparisons to Racquel Welsh's fur bikini for 1966's prehistoric epic One Million Years B.C. "Originally, the costume people had me in full armour, but that made me look like Joan of Arc. Because Guinevere was a Pict, she would actually have been naked. The Picts covered themselves in mud. The men in her army are naked from the waist up, so we had to come up with something that made her fit in properly." Knightley says she was raised on the Arthurian legend. "My favourite screen version of the myth is Camelot because I love the music. "I'm excited that we did such a different take on the legend. This way, I was definitely not tempted to copy any previous performance." Next month, Knightley is set to begin filming the lead in Pride and Prejudice for Joe Wright, the British director who helmed the TV mini-series Charles II: The Power and the Passion. She has agreed to reprise her role as Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. Bruckheimer has announced he hopes to begin filming in October, but Knightley insists she has seen neither a script nor a contract.

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