Never Let Me Go starring Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield is released this Friday (11th) and is the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s hit novel of the same name.
After hearing some women discussing Keira Knightley whilst looking at a display for the film in a derogatory fashion it occurred to me that due to the level of success and fame that she has had at such a young age Knightley still has a level of detractors who resort to name calling as a method of derision. In response to this I found myself thinking about how much I actually like her as an actress and why she should be praised.
She’s the perfect English rose
With roles in period dramas such as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement (both directed by Joe Wright) she has carved herself a place in the English rose category. Why is she so good in these roles that secured her an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win? First of all she can portray moments of vulnerability followed by fierce passion that make her more than a willowing wall flower. Her ability to shine on film is described brilliantly in a recent interview in Elle magazine in which reporter Alice Wignall describes her screen presence as being “one of those vanishingly rare individuals who can create moments of pure alchemical aesthetic magic, simply by stepping on to the screen.” It is in part then down to an essence that can’t be taught and whilst she might not have the striking talent of some of her peers such as Rebecca Hall and Carey Mulligan, this essence makes her a magnetic force.
She is willing to improve and expand
This can be seen in her work away from the big screen in her performances on the stage which have included last year’s turn in Moilere’s The Misanthrope in which she was a critical hit and received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award. This spring she will walk the boards again starring in an adaptation of The Children’s Hour with Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss. For such a high profile star to perform in theatre is not a new concept but the challenge Knightley has set is to improve her performance as actress. She told Elle magazine that “But if I’m not getting better, not learning, not changing, then what’s the point of it? It must be boring for people to watch if it is always the same”.
The perfect face for Chanel
Like many other film stars Knightley has become the face of a fragrance fashion brand, but she scored ‘the’ fashion brand and for the past few years she has been the star of Chanel’s Mademoiselle line. In these campaigns she has bared all with a well positioned bowler hat (seen below), followed by an almost as revealing sheer shirt with some well positioned braces, not one to be shy about her body as we have seen on countless occasions on film.
She successfully sued The Daily Mail
There have always been comments regarding Knightley’s slim figure with the term anorexia being bandied about for several years and it is a subject that the star has referenced in regard to family history but always stating that she has a very healthy lifestyle. So when in 2007 The Daily Mail printed a photo of the actress with an article that had the inflammatory headline “If pictures like this one of Keira carried a health warning, my darling daughter might have lived”, she sued for libel and successfully won.
But isn’t interested in becoming tabloid fodder
I think one aspect of Knightley’s big movie star title is through her choices of roles that include both blockbusters and indie fair. Her ability to be seen as these characters is also helped by her attempts to keep her private life as such and to avoid the unwanted attention of the paparazzi and tabloid journalism. This being a particularly hard task in the age of Twitter and TMZ but one that she has been quite successful at. This only adds to the mystique and perhaps makes her seem unrelatable causing the unpleasantries from those who think she doesn’t deserve the success she has, she doesn’t appear to be ‘just like us’. However this guarded nature is something that I find appealing and what may come across as aloof and cold to some, I find to be a rather charming facet that springs from protecting her life which she has spent all her adult years in front of the camera.
Ah, I do like Keira. although I went through a phase of not liking her (around “Love, Actually” – I blame the script for her section). Apart from the reasons above, I like her because she always seems quite normal – she swears like a trooper and has off days like everyone else. x
Comment by suze@thisfilmison.com — February 11, 2011 @ 11:41 am
Weirdly ‘she like to drop an f bomb’ was almost on the list after her interview in Elle that I quote above is littered with them.
Comment by Emma — February 11, 2011 @ 12:00 pm
[...] as much because of other people’s jealousy as for her roles in the latter POTC films, (see here for more praise) betters her strong performances for Joe Wright (the only man until Mark Romenek [...]
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