You will be surprised to know that Hollywood star Keira Knightley actually contemplated about quitting acting following the overnight success of Pirates of the Caribbean. The actress said she wanted to quit acting after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in her early twenties.
“I did think about it. Particularly at the point when I had a breakdown. I had PTSD and panic attacks. I literally couldn’t work for a year and I didn’t know whether there would be an end to that,” said Knightley, when asked if she ever thought about quitting acting in an interview with The Sunday Times’ Style magazine.
“My family and my close group of friends just wrapped me up. And I think, without that, it would have been a very different story. I knew I always had somebody there to cuddle me who didn’t want anything from me. Ultimately, I didn’t want them (the media and paparazzi) to win. The only thing I want to do is make films,” she added.
Knightley said she found stardom ‘very intense and lonely’ as people were always pointing fingers. “I tried being 5lb heavier, but then people say you have cellulite, and then 5lb lighter, and then you’re anorexic and causing people to die. It was just so much. But in a funny way I think I was quite lucky in that it was so insane that I sort of recognised it,” she said.“It was very intense and lonely. If there’s a camera at a party, I don’t think that’s a party, so I was never interested in being in that scene. I always wanted to be top of the class, and I always wanted to be perfect, and I always thought that I could just do fame right.”
On motherhood, she says, “I was never particularly maternal, but I always knew I wanted to experience that. It’s part of life. I want to experience as much of life as I can.” The Pirates of the Caribbean star has a three-year-old daughter Edie with husband James Righton.
With inputs from PTI