Sky Magazine
Falling in love with Keira by Martyn Palmer
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Date: 2004-11-24
Country: UK
Rating: 8.3/10
Votes: 21
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If you ask Keira Knightley what it was like to work with acclaimed screenwriter/director Richard Curtis and a host of British stars on Love Actually - Which premieres this month on Sky Movies - she'll tell you that it was lovely, actually, as well as funny, moving and maybe just a little terrifying.
"The read-through was like a who's who of British cinema - I've never been more nervous in my entire life," she says. "It was astonishing. I looked up and there was Hugh Grant, over there was Alan Rickman. Oh, there's Liam Neeson with Emma Thompson! I mean, can you blame me for being so nervous? It was huge. And at the end of it I was like, 'Ah! I can't handle this!' and I ran away. I got out of there as fast as I could."
The ever-modest Keira, still only 19, wouldn't be so boastful as to include herself in such exalted company. But make no mistake, she's now one of Britain's biggest stars, thanks to surprise hit Bend It Like Beckham and blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Balck Pearl and King Arthur.
In Love Actually, Richard Curtis, who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Blackadder, weaves together numerous bittersweet love stories set in contemporary London. Keira plays Juliet, a young bride who is struggling to understand why her husband's best man apparently dislikes her. The tale is brought to life in one of the most beautiful scenes in the film, in which Keira walks down the aisle with her new husband, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. As they turn to their guests, a gospel choir bursts into song with All You Need Is Love and thousands of rose petals cascade from the ceiling. Even the most hard-bitten members of the crew on the set were reaching for their hankies.
"The scene where I get married is possibly the most romantic thing I've ever seen," says Keira. "Some of the lads on the set - sparks [electricians], assistant directors and the rest of the crew - are real guys and they were all standing there with these stupid grins on their faces. And I was thinking to myself, 'oh yeah, this works...'"
In real life, Keira has had an on-off relationship with Irish model Jamie Dornan, but here's no sign of marriage. "A serious relationship? I'm far too young to even think about one," she says. Instead she's enjoying her freedom, new-found fame and wealth. She has recently bought a £1m apartment in London's upmarket Mayfair although she's back living with her parents - actor Will Knightley and playwright Sherman Macdonald - while the property is being renovated. She remains very close to her parents, who supported her decision to leave school at 16 to pursue acting full time. By then she'd already appeared as a nine-year-old in A Village Affair, a BBC adaptation of Joanna Trollope's novel, and at 14 she played Sabé in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
Next year, she has a string of movies coming up, including Domino, the real-life story of Domino Harvey, an American model who gave up her glamorous job to become a bounty hunter. Give her fine bone structure and perfect figure, Keira makes the ideal choice to play a model. Indeed, her face has even graced the cover of fashion bible Vogue, but she reckons she looks far from beautiful. "I loathe watching myself. You've got you own ugly mug staring back at you and it's a jarring sensation. I always think I look like a man."
But see Keira in Love Actually and it would be the furthest thought from anyone's mind. She is delightful as Juliet and she will admit that romantic comedies are very difficult to resist. "Richard does these films so well. You can sit through all of his films with a stupid grin on your face, and maybe have a little cry. I know I do..."
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