Keira Knightley recently told the London Times that at the height of her Pirates of the Caribbean fame, paparazzi were surging into her life and stalking her every move, which drove her “insane.”
“It was almost ‘whore’ (scream),” the actor said. “Sometimes I say ‘slut.’ Especially when I was with someone, it was my boyfriend, my brother, my father. They were trying to get a reaction out of them, trying to provoke people into hitting them. Then they could sue. And that’s it. That was the time when crashes were starting to happen. They ran people off the road and they got more money for pictures of actresses or something that crashed. And then Britney shaved her head and we were like, ‘Great, we can make them do some shit.’ Crazy. ‘”
Knightley said she went into survival mode and “started wearing the same clothes every day” to avoid presenting herself to the tabloids. Her outfit included “three identical pairs of jeans, a striped T-shirt, and boots. All other clothing was thrown away.”
“And if I was being followed, I would stop walking,” Knightley added. “I literally stood there. I stayed still. One day I stood there for five hours. ‘If you’re still there, I’m not going. I’m not moving’…[And]if I’m always wearing the same clothes and standing still, it wasn’t a precious shot for them. There’s only so many times you can write ‘Oh, she’s wearing the same clothes’ alongside a picture of me standing still. It gets boring.”
The unwanted attention became so extreme that Knightley decided to quit acting and said, “My family supported me. They said, ‘Just walk.'” She went first to London and then began taking various trains across Europe. Knightley was never noticed.
“It was very good,” she said. “Museums, trains… no one expects to see you there. I was being very sloppy, and they probably weren’t expecting that either. Just not making eye contact or hunching your back a little. I kind of limped along.”
Knightley was 18 when Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series launched, turning her into an international star. She told The Times last year that fame came at a “huge price” and she found herself “haunted by men”. To make matters worse, she was told that such behavior was natural since she was a famous actor. At the time, “it was a tough time for young women to be in the public eye,” she added.
Knightley stars in the Netflix original film The Woman in Cabin 10, which is currently streaming.
