Keira Knightley
News

Sorry, corset fans:

Keira Knightley has ruled herself out of Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

In an interview with Moviefone, the actress said: "It was a completely fantastic experience, and it was an amazingly large portion of my life, but I don't think I need to go there again... I think that it's done. But I'm very excited to see the next one. And [Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow] is so wonderful in that character. I think it'll be wonderful."

Keira Knightley is finally leaving the 1700s.

The actress, who has made a career leading period movies set centuries ago, will headline Never Let Me Go.

in the sci-fi flick, she'll play one of three friends that grow up in a boarding school with no access to the outside world. None of them know that each is a clone grown for the sole purpose of organ donation.

In other casting news:

Jason Bateman has nabbed a role in Up in the Air Jason Reitman's adaptation of the Walter Kirn novel. Bateman previously worked with the director on Juno.

According to Variety, the movie stars George Clooney as "a corporate downsizer who is obsessed with collecting frequent flyer miles at the expense of having a life."

Bateman will play his boss.

Johnny Depp may have recently signed on for a Pirates of the Caribbean 4, but co-star Keira Knightley sounds less than enthusiastic for a fourth entry into this stretched-out franchise.

According to MTV News, the beautiful actress behind Elizabeth Swann said "They were completely amazing, but I think I can’t wear corsets for a while.  I had an amazing journey with those three films. But I think it’s [time to do] different things."

What kind of different things, Keira?  Like 400 other period pieces that find you in corsets?  Kidding, we agree with your choice.  They've already made two too many Pirates movies.  And this is coming from some of the biggest Pirates fans.

Here's the full interview:

In order to become a member of the actor's guild, Keira Knightley must have signed an unusual contract that required her to star solely in period pieces.

Fresh off The Duchess (and Pirates of the Caribbean... and Atonement... Pride & Prejudice...), the actress has signed on for The Beautiful and the Damned.

As stated by The Hollywood Reporter, the movie will be directed by Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog, The Notebook). It will be based on the love story between writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre, as Knightley would portray latter role.

The film will focus on the Jazz Age icons Fitzgerald, famed for writing "The Great Gatsby," and Zayre known for living large until, of course, crashing hard

While we wish Keira Knightley would expand her repertoire a bit and act in a movie that actually takes place in modern times, we can't disagree with the notion that the actress performs well in period pieces.

Her latest, The Duchess, opens this weekend. Here are excerpts from an interview Knightley gave ComingSoon.net about the film:

ComingSoon.net: What was your response when you first read The Duchess script and did you know anything about the character before reading it?
Keira Knightley: I'd never heard of her before, no, so the script came through my door with three very large huge white ostrich feathers attached, with a gold ribbon, and I thought, "Oh, I don't care what it is. That's fantastic." Then I read it, and I know I just thought that she was fabulous; I thought she was a fascinating character. This idea of this woman who's politically so influential, and this huge fashion icon, and such a force of nature, and yet privately is somebody who is so intensely vulnerable and incredibly lonely. I thought, you know, the combination of those two things were sort of fascinating.

CS: Were you worried at all that you'd be able to pull it off?
Knightley: Oh, yeah. I mean, I think there's always that worry. I think you have to face failure, and particularly if you're an actress or an actor. Sometimes things aren't going to go the way that you hope they will, but that's part of what's so exciting about the job, you know? I don't really want to do things that I don't find challenging, so yes, there's always a huge fear that it's going to be awful, and I'm going to be crap, and all the rest of it, but you might as well go for it anyway.

Keira Knightley takes on a role based on real events in The Duchess.

Both the actress and the movie are garnering Oscar buzz, as Knightley recently sat down with MoviesOnline to discuss the project:

What was your response when you first read the script?  Did you know anything about The Duchess?
I’d never heard of her before, no.  So the script came through my door with three very large huge white ostrich feathers attached, with a gold ribbon.  And I thought, “Oh, I don’t care what it is.  That’s fantastic.”  And then I read it.  And I know I just thought that she was fabulous.  You know, I thought she was a fascinating character.  This idea of this woman who’s politically so influential, and this huge fashion icon, and such a force of nature, and yet privately is somebody who is so intensely vulnerable and incredibly lonely.  And I thought, you know, the combination of those two things were sort of fascinating.

Could you identify with the notion that even in the 1700s, it appeared that the public was obsessed with so-called celebrities.  Do you identify with the kind of parallels that this film is making with today?  Especially you, being in the public eye?
I certainly don’t look for autobiographical work.  So I wasn’t looking to draw any parallels with myself whatsoever.  I thought, yes, it was interesting.  I thought that celebrity culture was a modern phenomenon.  It’s fascinating to find out that it was around 300 years ago. 

I sort of thought it was kind of the least interesting aspect of the story, in a funny kind of way, though.  I mean, I thought that the way that she used it, the manipulation of image and everything, I thought that was very interesting.  What it was saying about the kind of mental state—that as the marriage started collapsing, she needed more and more and more attention from complete strangers, was an interesting sort of – this sounds like a psychological aspect to the character.  But no, I wasn’t trying to draw any parallels to myself.

According to Variety, Keira Knightley is in talks to star in a remake off My Fair Lady.

The actress would star as Eliza Doolittle, the simple Cockney flower girl who is able to transform into a proper lady under the tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins.

We loved Keira Knightley in Love Actually.

My Fair Lady was first staged in 1956 featuring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, while Audrey Hepburn starred in 1964's Oscar-winning film. What do you think?

Can you picture Knightley in this iconic role?

James McAvoy and Keira Knightley grace the current covers of both Entertainment Weekly and W Magazine.

Here are snippets of the interview the Atonement stars gave the former publication:

Entertainment Weekly: Since so much of Atonement rides on the chemistry between the two of you, how nervous were you to shoot your big love scene?
Keira Knightley: You have to believe that they will wait for each other for five years based on that one moment. So it had to be erotic, and it had to be passionate enough. We talked about it a lot. Most directors just go, ''Oh, you know what to do. Just get on with it.'' Well, actually, I don't know what to do. This is a relative stranger, and I'm in front of a group of strangers and I don't know what to do.

Joe was incredibly precise. He had storyboarded the whole thing: My foot coming out of my shoe, biting my lip at the end, the way my head turns â€" that was all completely him. And during it, because it was so close and it was on a Steadicam, we didn't know what part of the body the shot was on. So Joe literally shouted [directions] out as we were doing it.

EW: Both of you say your favorite scene together is when you reunite over tea during the war.
James McAvoy: That was the scene that made me think, I can do this part. At one point it was dramatically altered.
Knightley: Oh, that was awful! Remember? We nearly died!

Read the full interview with the stars now.