Keira Knightley

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Keira Knightley is consistently proving that she is more than just a pretty face. The statuesque Brit is gorgeous to be sure, but her Oscar-nomination for her role in Pride and Prejudice solidified her as one of Hollywood's most formidable talents. In her latest film Atonement, she plays a role that seems tailor-made for her. The film takes place in the 1930's and as the sophisticated yet rebellious Cecilia, Knightley perfectly evokes that time period's glamour.

Cecilia finds herself falling in love with her old friend Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), but complications arise. Cecilia is from a wealthy family and Robbie is the son of a house servant. Her younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) witnesses moments of strong flirtation between the two, but misinterprets Robbie's affections as having ill intent. When Briony accuses Robbie of a crime he didn't commit, Cecilia is separated from the man she loves.

Atonement reunites Knightley with her Pride and Prejudice director, Joe Wright. 'We've always had an incredible creative relationship; I've been very lucky,' she says of Wright. 'Chemistry between actor and director is as rare as on-screen chemistry between actors and we've always just clicked. It actually got to the point on Atonement where he didn't even have to say anything; I just kind of knew what he wanted which is an amazing place to be. And he's a friend and we always get on anyway so it's always a very happy working relationship. He wants collaboration from everybody and he wants discussion and I find that very exciting.'

Although Knightley embodies Cecilia so completely, she almost played a different role. '[Wright] originally offered me Briony in the film, the middle Briony, and I read the script and it just made me sob and sob and sob but for some reason I had totally fallen in love with Cecilia,' she says. 'Then we went out for lunch and I pitched him Cecilia and he pitched me Briony, and we were both so good that we managed to convince each other. So by the end of the thing he wanted me to play Cecilia and I wanted to play Briony which got very confusing. So it took another two lunches to actually sort out what I was going to play. I'm glad it was Cecilia though.'

'I think that she's a brilliantly drawn character, I think she's quite a difficult woman, and she's not particularly nice when you meet her at the start of the film,' she says. 'But I thought that there was incredible humanity to her and I loved the layers of her. And the fact that, I'm saying this and it sounds rather slushly, but she is kind of redeemed by love and redeemed by the sacrifice by walking away from the family and all the rest of it.'

Like her co-star James McAvoy, Knightley was deeply interested in the time period in which the film takes place. Researching the role proved to be a learned experience. 'I've always been fascinated by the period anyway,' she says. 'I think anybody that lives in London or any city in Britain, you see the scars of the second world war all over the city so it's difficult not to be interested by it. So I loved researching, but more I loved researching the British films of that period because although I knew a lot of the American ones I didn't know the British ones as well. We had about three weeks of rehearsals before we started and a lot of that time was actually spent watching David Lean and Noel Coward films like In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter on a loop really, which was completely fantastic.'

The exquisite costumes also helped Knightley get into character. They also track her character's progression from snobbish rich girl to a more fully realized woman who is transformed by love. 'I think clothes from that period are amazing,' she says. 'I loved working with Jacqueline Durran on this film. I worked with her on Pride and Prejudice as well and she's fantastic because she opens the discussion and she realizes how important clothes are for the character that's being played. Therefore she always asks the actor their opinion, which a lot of costume designers don't do. I find it's very important to know why my character would have chosen certain clothes. I mean, the clothes you see Cecilia in at the beginning of this film say a lot about who she is, about this glamour-puss, about this woman who has been very much raised to be a trophy bride, and also what she's kind of rebelling against and kind of being disgusted by and one of the reasons why she's sort of like a pressure cooker about to explode. The clothes I think played a big part in that. And also the first part of the movie is very stylized and obviously I think the costumes were a huge part of that.'

The satin emerald green dress she wears during her love scene with McAvoy, stands out as a particularly brilliant piece of costuming. That scene also showcases the powerful chemistry between the two actors. Knightley famously made headlines when she described her co-star's kissing talents. 'Yes, he's an amazing kisser,' she says as if she knew this question was coming. 'I only said that because I was asked a million times who was better between Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom so I stupidly thought I was being clever by saying, 'James McAvoy! Haha, shut up!' And so now all that's going on is, 'So, James McAvoy's a better kisser than Johnny Depp .' They're all wonderful kissers; they've got nothing to worry about.'

Something Knightley's certainly not worrying about' All this awards-season buzz. 'I think it's always wonderful when you're involved with a film that people actually like and what's fantastic about this is that the hype is based on the fact that we got fantastic reviews, that people have gone to see it in the country's that it has come out in so far and have really loved it,' she says. 'So that's positive. I think when you start talking about Oscars and you're mentioning that in the same sentence as the film then that's always going to be good. It means that something's gone right. I think often it can sometimes mean that if you don't get the nominations then it's somehow seen as a failure and I don't agree with that.'

So far for Knightley, it has been nothing but success.