Keira Knightley Rules Out Franchises After Experience With ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’: “I Was Taken Down Publicly”

Having been in the limelight since she was 17 with the Pirates of the Caribbean films, two-time Oscar nominee Keira Knightley said she has since ruled out returning to the franchise world.

“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” Knightley — whose fame was cemented at the height of the noughties with the initial trilogy and other fare like Atonement and Pride & Prejudice later on — told The Times of London in a new profile.

“I was seen as sh– 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 [Pride & Prejudice and The Imitation Game],” the Bend It Like Beckham star said. “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.”

Knightley appeared in the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, beginning in 2003. She portrayed Elizabeth Swann in the original Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest (2006) and At World’s End (2007), opposite Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp. As a result, Knightley said, she would not return to the demanding schedule and requirements of a sequel-spawning tentpole.

“The hours are insane. It’s years of your life, you have no control over where you’re filming, how long you’re filming, what you’re filming,” she explained.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Love Actually star discussed the complicated and traumatic relationship she had with her fame, especially as a young woman in Hollywood at a time when topics concerning mental health and body image were not treated with care. “I knew I wasn’t,” she said, referencing when tabloids speculated she was dealing with an eating disorder. “I knew I was eating … in that classic trauma way I don’t remember it. There’s been a complete delete, and then some things will come up and I’ll suddenly have a very bodily memory of it because, ultimately, it’s public shaming, isn’t it? It’s obviously part of my psyche, given how young I was when it happened. I’ve been made around it.”

Knightley, who spoke of taking a step back from acting after raising two daughters along with husband and musician James Righton, will soon appear in Netflix’s six-part spy-thriller series Black Doves, opposite Ben Whishaw, which is slated for release Dec. 5.