Keira Knightley revealed that she went through "years of therapy" after her role in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.

Knightley was just 18 when she first started portraying Elizabeth Swann in the globally popular franchise, which also starred Hollywood heartthrobs Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.

And while the movies went on to be huge hits worldwide, it turns out that Knightley did not have that great of a time being famous.

During a 2024 interview with Variety, the 41-year-old actress re-visited some of her earlier work in her career - including the PotC series - and how "horrific" it felt to find fame so young.

"I'm not an extrovert, so I found that level of scrutiny and that level of fame really hard," she said. "It was an age where you are becoming, you haven’t become, and you need to make mistakes. It’s a very precarious age, particularly for women."

She stated that while it was "traumatic", it "set up the rest of [her] career."

"So looking back, would I do anything different? No, I wouldn't because I'm unbelievably lucky now, and my career is in a place where I really enjoy it, and I have a level of fame that's much less intense," she continued.

"I can deal with it now, and that's great. But at the time, it was not so great, and took many years of therapy to figure it out," she added.

She was also asked what she learned from that experience and she emphasized that "we have to be very careful with our young women."

The actress went on to explain that her experiences on set have now influenced the way she treats other young women in the industry.

"When I work with young actresses, I'm so protective of them," she told the outlet. "There’s a lot of people who go, 'Oh, you’re only here because of your face.' And they belittle them because of the way that they look. I think everyone can be a little kinder."

Her earlier career must have had a dramatic impact on her because she also added that she would not want her daughters to become actors.

Knightley shares two daughters with her husband James Righton - Edie, 10, and Delilah, six.

The 40-year-old mom does her best to keep the little girls out of the spotlight in the hopes that they could live somewhat of a normal childhood before they realize who their mom is.

In January 2019, the Pride & Prejudice alum got candid about her experience as a mother, admitting that she was finding things "difficult" despite her "privilege."

"I don't think we give women enough credit for the physical and emotional marathon they go through when becoming a mother," she told Balance magazine.

"I come from a place of amazing privilege. I have an incredible support system; I've been unbelievably lucky in my career; I can afford good childcare, and yet I still find it really f**king difficult," she said, before explaining that statement "doesn't mean I don't love my kid[s]."

"It's okay to say that," she added. "It's just me admitting that the sleep deprivation, the hormonal changes, the shift in relationship with my partner, are all things that make me feel as if I'm failing on a daily basis."

Despite this though, she's looking forward to watching the little ones grow up.

Featured Image Credit: Noam Galai/Getty/ Century Studios

Most people don't realise this, but it's not easy being a celebrity. Sure you get the big house, the fame, the awards and the fancy car; but think about how much privacy you have to sacrifice. Once you're in the public eye, it's very difficult to get back out of it again, and many people find that they just can't cope with the constant pressure and scrutiny, and turn to drugs or alcohol to escape and spiral into addiction.

One person who has gone through this kind of experience is Pirates of the Carribean actress Keira Knightley. Knightley had appeared in 15 movies by the time she was 22 years old, including The Hole, Bend It Like Beckham, Love Actually and Pirates Of The Caribbean, and has now admitted that her sudden fame almost led to an emotional breakdown. In a recent interview with Balance magazine, Knightley admitted that she now struggles to remember much of her life between the age of 19-22 as a result of the high-stress environment.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BsWDGnKhsKf/]]

Knightley stated: "I don’t remember it in a linear way because I think my coping mechanisms were kicking in and shutting a lot of it out. My world crashed when I was 22. Everything stopped working and I felt as if I was broken into tiny pieces; as if my brain was literally shattered. I just took a year out, travelling around.  There was a very big question mark over whether I was ever going to go back to work, but I’ve always loved acting; it’s just everything else that comes with it that I was struggling with."

"I was at a time in my life when I was still becoming. Like most young people, I hadn’t quite found who I was or what I was about. My body was changing, and I didn’t even know how I felt about myself and what I looked like.  Yet all of a sudden, people were being very vocal with their views on me as a young woman and as an actress. I lost confidence in myself because I was made to feel that I didn’t deserve to be doing what I was doing. There was no way I was going to be able to get on the red carpet without having a f**king panic attack. So I had hypnotherapy and it worked. Thankfully, I haven’t had that feeling for a long time."

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Br8Tw7Wop_3/]]

She added: "I come from a place of amazing privilege. I have an incredible support system; I’ve been unbelievably lucky in my career; I can afford good childcare, and yet I still find it really f*cking difficult. It’s OK to say that. It doesn’t mean I don’t love my kid, it’s just me admitting that the sleep deprivation, the hormonal changes, the shift in relationship with my partner, are all things that make me feel as if I’m failing on a daily basis."

However, despite the above statements, it seems as though Keira is now enjoying being a parent despite the hurdles, and is in a much more stable place. Phew!

Johnny Depp has weighed in on how he felt having to share an on-screen kiss with Keira Knightley, who was considerably younger than him in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightley shared an onscreen kiss in POTC. Credit: Dave Hogan / Getty

Depp, 61, and Knightley, 39, starred together in three of the iconic Pirates of the Caribbean films in the early 2000s, portraying Captain Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann.

The first film in the franchise, The Curse of the Black Pearl, was released in 2003 and also featured Orlando Bloom, who played Will Turner, Swann’s love interest.

Johnny Depp, Kiera Knightley, and Orlando Bloom's characters were involved in a complex love triangle. Credit: E. Charbonneau / Staff / Getty

At the time of filming the franchise, Knightley was an up-and-coming actress at just 17 years old. Meanwhile, the Edward Scissorhands star was 39, and much more established in the Hollywood industry.

The Pride and Prejudice actress' character was involved in a complex love triangle between Captain Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann, and Will Turner.

In Dead Man's Chest, which was released in 2006, Depp shared a kiss with Knightley.

Watch the scene below:

Although the kiss wasn't supposed to be a romantic one - given that Swann was distracting Sparrow in order to chain him to the ship to get eaten - Depp still found it weird to shoot.

He opened up about it to The Standard in 2012, revealing: "Kissing someone you are not romantically involved with is always awkward, but the fact that Keira is twenty-something years younger than me made it infinitely more awkward. Still, she was a good sport about it and we did what we had to do."

He also spoke more about the kiss to TMZ: "Any kind of scene like that whenever you’re doing that sort of thing, it’s always unbelievably awkward especially having met Keira when she was 17 years old."

"But regardless of that it’s always awkward so you kind of just making light of it; she was a good sport and we just kind of did what we had to do, that’s the gig," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Knightley seemed to have a different point of view on her kissing partner.

"I couldn't ask for a better kissing scene with Johnny Depp actually I think my 14-year-old self was yelping with pleasure," she said in 2006. "It was fantastic! What more can a girl ask for? I've got Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and I get to kiss both of them. It's wonderful!"

Credit: Julien M. Hekimian / Getty

As many years have gone by since the release of the franchise, Knightley has revealed that she views her experience on Pirates of the Caribbean in a different light.

The Bend it Like Beckham star said playing "an object of desire" like Swann at 17 left her feeling “stuck” and “constrained” in the film industry.

“[Elizabeth Swann] was the object of everybody’s lust,” she said. “Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fight in her. But it was interesting coming from being really tomboyish to getting projected as quite the opposite. I felt very constrained. I felt very stuck."

"So the roles afterward were about trying to break out of that…I didn’t have a sense of how to articulate it. It very much felt like I was caged in a thing I didn’t understand,” she added.

Featured image credit: Dave M. Benett / Getty

It's that time of year again when we all cozy up and get stuck in with some classic Christmas movies! And just like clockwork, one movie, in particular, is shocking fans all over again...

Love Actually is a bona fide festive staple, with fans indulging in countless watches despite it being nearly 20 years old!

Beloved British actress Keira Knightley made an unforgettable appearance in the 2003 romcom, and once again, everyone is bewildered by how old she was when shooting the cherished title.

Despite portraying the sophisticated newlywed, Juliet – whom many of us would assume to be in her mid-twenties – Keira was just 18 years old when Love Actually came out in movie theaters, and 17 during filming.

In recent years, the Pirates of the Caribbean star has reminisced over the uplifting movie and spoken about how young he was on set, she even revealed in an interview that her teenaged skin affected her character's wardrobe!

When speaking to BBC film critic Ali Plumb, she got candid about a certain infamous hat she wore during her character's climactic scene. Plumb asked the star if she had any fashion regrets, quizzing her on the 2000s headgear, to which she replied: "Do you want to know why the hat was there?

"I had a massive spot in the middle of my forehead," the award-winning actress admitted.

"This is the problem with being 17 and being in films," Keira explained, "I mean it was humungous!”

She charmingly continued: "There was no choice but we had to find a hat to cover it because there was no lighting, there was no make-up that was going to cover it."

Naturally, fans in the comments section couldn't quite get over the revelation.

One commenter wrote: "Woah woah woah... wait... SHE WAS 17 IN THAT FILM???!"

A second added: "She was only 17???? She did so many things before that!"

"17!!! She wasn't even able to get married in real life then lool how jarring it must have been to be getting married in that scene," a third added.

In the movie, Juliet marries Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) but his best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is desperately in love with her – they don't make them like this anymore!

Chiwetel was 26 at the time, meaning there was an eight-year gap between the on-screen newlyweds. Furthermore, Andrew was 30 upon its release, which adds a whole new layer when watching that famous 'cards on the doorstep' scene!

Another character that highlights the bizarre age gaps within the world of Love Actually is Sam, the adorable little boy who played Liam Neeson's son.

We all remember Thomas Brodie Sangster playing the young hopeless romantic as he set out to impress his first major crush by getting involved with his school's Christmas pageant.

Well – and brace yourself for this one – Thomas was 13 years old when he played Sam, meaning he was mindbogglingly just five years younger than Keira!

As you can imagine, fans haven't been able to wrap their heads around how the little boy playing drums in the school play, and the bride with multiple admirers, were played by two actors so similar in age!

A viral Twitter post seems to do the rounds every year as the holidays inch closer, which makes everyone find comfort in the unanimous astonishment.

It reads: "Yearly reminder that there is only a five year age gap between Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Keira Knightley in Love Actually."

One to think about during your annual watch of this holiday go-to!

Featured image credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy

Keira Knightley has recently spoken out against comments about women ageing following the controversy surrounding Madonna's appearance at last month's Grammy Awards.

On February 6, the 'Like A Virgin' singer took center stage at the award show to introduce Sam Smith and Kim Petras ahead of their 'Unholy' performance.

However, rather than the focus being on the 64-year-old's presenting skills, people directed their attention to her looks, slamming her for allegedly altering her appearance so much over the years.

Twitter was brimming with comments about Madonna's "new face", with some going as far as comparing her to a muppet character.

After the show, the singer took to Instagram to address the rumors, emphasizing that ageism and misogyny play a huge part in how people perceive her.

She said: "Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny That permeates the world we live in. A world that refuses to celebrate women past the age of 45 And feels the need to punish her If she continues to be strong willed, hard-working and adventurous."

She then stated that she's never "had to apologize" for any of the creative choices she's made in her career, and she isn't about to start now.

"I have been degraded by the media since the beginning of my career but I understand that this is all a test and I am happy to do the trailblazing so that all the women behind me can have an easier time in the years to come. In the words of Beyonce 'You-won’t break my soul.'"

In the wake of the drama, the actress and star of Disney's latest movie The Boston Strangler, Keira Knightley, has shared her views on how the industry treats women as they get older.

It's no secret that this has been a recurring theme for a lot of women in the world of entertainment, which has prompted them to look towards other methods such as cosmetic surgery and Botox to help preserve their youth for as long as possible.

When speaking about the victims in the movie, which is based on the infamous Boston Strangler murders, the 37-year-old stated that because many of the women were in their fifties, they were largely ignored by the media.

"They were referred to as elderly!" Knightley tells Harper's Bazaar in a new interview. "They were victims of these horrific crimes, yet they weren’t looked at. They were invisible to the public."

The interviewer then asks the actress if she's worried about ageism having an impact on her own career.

"A lot of the conversations I’ll have with my girlfriends are, 'Oh my God, I’ve got a line [wrinkle]. Oh God!'" she says. "Change is always tricky. We’re taught that it’s bad. We’re taught that we don’t want grey hair. I love that you’ve got grey hair."

She then turns her attention to the treatment of women in the entertainment industry.

"You’ve got Madonna on the one hand – and we’re told that’s not the right thing. Then you have someone else, where we’re told, 'They looked better 20 years ago'. How are we, culturally, meant to age?"

She goes on to cite Helen Mirren as a "terribly good" example.

"She ages in the most sensational manner. She’s fabulous in every way. You look at her and think, 'God, you’re having so much fun. You’re enjoying life so much.'"

Maybe we all need to take a page out of Mirren's book.

Featured Image Credit: PA Images / Alamy