Keira Knightly Is More Than Just a Pretty Face

Keira Knightly is more than just “a skinny body and a pretty face.”

The actress said she is under pressure from the public to perform well in Joe Wright’s adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenia.

The British star told Empire magazine: "This is definitely the hardest part I've had."

"When you take a massive slamming early on I don't think you ever really get over it. I look at some actors of my age who didn't go through a slamming and I cannot understand the confidence. It's like a different species.

"I think that's ingrained in me now, that feeling of needing to convince myself I'm not s***. Also, I knew I was learning and doing it very publicly... Anna Karenina was definitely one where on paper it should have been easier, because I knew Joe so well, but it was still really difficult.

"I don't think the learning ever stops, but the early years were about proving I wasn't just a skinny body and a pretty face," she said.

Keira in Pirates of the Caribbean

Knightly doesn’t like being famous and has even turned down roles in Hollywood blockbusters to escape the eyes of the paparazzi.

"It comes to a point where you think, 'What kind of film can I make that will allow me to live a proper life?' And those tentpole movies make it difficult.

"I became aware of how much I was complaining about it and you can't complain about the attention you're getting while still doing the films that invite the most attention. I do actually love blockbusters but that decision has a lot that comes with it that I'm not prepared to go with."