Keira Knightley On the Cover of Interview Magazine

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KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
BY TIM BLANKS

IT'S BEEN SAID THAT AT THE RIPE OLD AGE OF 3, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY TURNED TO HER PARENTS AND DEMANDED AN AGENT. THREE YEARS LATER SHE GOT ONE. AND THAT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING. PLUS: WEB-EXCLUSIVE IMAGES

Elizabeth Taylor wasn't yet 20 when she starred opposite Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun (1951). Her pell-mell rush to womanhood is Hollywood's most striking illustration of how arbitrary age can be. And now here's Keira Knightley to underscore the point. Arranging her body in front of Sam Taylor-Wood's lens, she is as self-possessed and resolute (it's all in the jut of that jaw) as any screen queen from the golden age. Dietrich, Davis, Hepburn . . . it's their starry frost Knightley reflects in these images—and in her latest film, Atonement—rather than the substance-sodden, panty-free crassness of her peers. But Keira comes undone when she laughs. She turns back into a girl. The transformation is as merciful as it is unexpected. So much otherworldly womanliness in one so young would otherwise be too . . . too terrifying.


TIM BLANKS: How was the photo shoot?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: We ended by taking my clothes off again. How does that always happen?

TB: Why do you think?

KK: I don't know. Because I say yes, I suppose.

TB: Do you ever get the feeling people are looking at you as an old-school movie star?

KK: I think it has more to do with the films I've done. If you watch Atonement, the look of my character, Cecilia Tallis, is incredibly stylized and sort of movie star–esque for that time. But I think different people have seen me in different ways. I started out being very much "girl next door," and now I've gone into a bit of a Hollywood-glamour phase.

TB: Did you relate to the Hollywood-glamour thing when you were growing up?

KK: I think it's wonderful to have those aesthetic fantasies. Those films pretend that you can wake up in the morning with bright red lipstick and perfect false eyelashes and hair; I like that.

TB: Are movies an escape for you?

KK: Absolutely! I always loved being transported to another time and place, and I love to be carried away in a fantasy.

TB: When you're watching it or when you're making it?

KK: When I'm watching it. When I'm shooting I feel like I'm on pause much of the time, because there's a lot of waiting around. You can't focus on anything else, but you can't be completely in the story all the time, either, because there are 20 minutes between takes.

TB: But you're staying in character, obviously, during that pause period?

KK: When you stay focused on something, I suppose a part of the character rubs off on you and you don't want to entirely leave that fantasy world—you have to have a bit of it in your head to be able to keep performing. But I didn't have the posh English voice of Atonement 24/7, nor was I that tense 24/7, because I couldn't handle that.

TB: Did Cecilia stay with you afterward?

KK: No. Occasionally her voice comes out, but only when I'm taking the piss out of someone.

TB: But I imagine her sadness would put you in touch with something in yourself that would be there forever.

KK: I don't know if she put it there. People are many different things at once—we can be complete wankers one minute and totally fantastic the next. I think any good character is understandable on different levels. That's what I like about Cecilia. Her emotions don't rub off on me, because I've decided to give her whatever emotions I wanted to; they were there to begin with.

TB: There were so many species of loss in the film—there's the loss of a girl, the loss of a woman, the loss of a love. Which did you relate to the most?

KK: All of them. That's the power of it. Everybody has regrets. Everybody feels guilty about something, though hopefully not for something as bad as what happens in the movie. But that's what is wonderful about the book and the film—you understand where these people are coming from. The situation may be completely different from ones I've experienced or that most people have experienced, but the core emotions are the same—that we all make mistakes, and sometimes we're horrendous to each other. It's the Robbie character [played by James McAvoy] that I find truly heartbreaking, because at the beginning he's really Christ-like in his goodness—he's a selfless, perfect person—and in a funny way I don't think we can ever handle it when someone is that good, so what we do is destroy them.


To read the complete interview with Keira Knightley, pick up the December/January issue today.

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