Keira Knightley is looking back on the whirlwind of emotions she experienced as a rising star in her early twenties, a time when she was navigating blockbuster fame, critical backlash, and an Academy Award nomination, all at once.
While reminiscing with Pride & Prejudice co-star Rosamund Pike for Vanity Fair in honour of the film’s 20th anniversary, Knightley admitted the praise and criticism she received during that period left her feeling conflicted. “Pirates of the Caribbean had already come out, but I think in the public consciousness, I was seen as a terrible actress,” she said. “But I had this phenomenally big success with Pirates. And I think [Pride & Prejudice] was the first one that was a phenomenally big success but was also critically acclaimed.”
Released around the same time as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Knightley said the contrast between the reactions to the two films was dizzying. “I got the worst reviews ever for that, and then also being nominated for an Oscar at the same time — it was, in my 21-year-old head, quite confusing.”
Knightley was just 20 when she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Pride & Prejudice, making her the third-youngest best actress nominee at the time. Though already a household name thanks to Pirates, Bend It Like Beckham, and Love Actually, she recalled that much of the early critical response to her performances stung.
“I got terrible reviews for it — or at least the ones I remember, or the ones that, in your 17-year-old brain, actually sink in,” she said of Bend It Like Beckham. “Of course, it’s only the ones that are negative. So I think [Pride & Prejudice] was the first time that it had been unequivocally positive, right?”
In a separate conversation with The Times of London last year, Knightley opened up further about the complicated legacy of the Pirates franchise for her career and public image.
“I was seen as shit because of them,” she said candidly. “And yet because they did so well, I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for. They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”
Despite the mixed reception, Knightley went on to reprise her role in two more Pirates films after Pride & Prejudice and continued to carve a space for herself as one of Britain’s most enduring and versatile actors.