Keira Knightley Says ‘I Was Seen as a Terrible Actress’ Because of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ but Then Got an Oscar Nom at 20 Years Old: ‘Quite Confusing’

Keira Knightley reunited with her “Pride & Prejudice” co-star Rosamund Pike to celebrate the romance drama’s 20th anniversary with Vanity Fair, and she remembered what a confusing time the movie’s release was as a young actor. Mainly, Knightley was earning acclaim and critical pans all at once.

“‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ had already come out, but I think in the public consciousness, I was seen as a terrible actress,” Knightley 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. So I remember it coming out maybe the same year, maybe around the same time as ‘Pirates 2.’ And 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.”

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Knightley was 20 years old when she was nominated for best actress at the Oscars with “Pride & Prejudice.” It was the first Oscar nomination of her career, one that made her the category’s third-youngest nominee ever at the time. Knightley was already a star by the time “Pride & Prejudice” opened thanks not only to the first “Pirates” movie but also hit films like “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Love Actually.” But even those films were not met with kind notices for her.

“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 the “Bend It Like Beckham” reviews. “Of course, it’s only the ones that are negative. So I think it was the first time that it had been unequivocally positive, right?”

Knightley said in an interview with The Times of London last year that “it’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” referring to the mega-successful “Pirates” movies. She starred in two more “Pirates” films after “Pride & Prejudice’s” release.

“I was seen as shit because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for,” Knightley said at the time. “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.”

Watch Knightley and Pike’s full chat for “Vanity Fair” in the video below.

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