Not Another Keira Knightley Piece

The new Audrey ? Keira Knightley in Atonement, Alex Bailey

She is everywhere. On screen, in print, on the web. She has become a heavy-weight diva at the tender age of 22. But can Keira Knightley bear the burden of her stardom? And can she justify success with her acting skills?

Knightley was born in Teddington, Middlesex, in 1985  to TV actor Will Knightley and scriptwriter and playwright Sharman Macdonald (The Winter Guest ). Growing up in an acting-driven family, it is no surprise that she had her first role aged nine.

But although Keira didn’t want to pursue a career in cinema when she was at college, destiny handed her bigger and bigger roles ( her break was in Bend it Like Beckham, 2002 )  until she left school at 16.
After only six years as an actress, she has collected an impressive number of awards, including an Oscar nomination for Pride And Prejudice.

And with her svelte-like figure, ladylike poise and recent adverts as the new face ( replacing Kate Moss )  of Chanel’s Coco Madmoiselle perfume Keira is regarded by many as the new Audrey Hepburn.

Her detractors blame her for looking almost anorexic and thus promoting an undesirable role model of femininity.
Last month in Venice, during the press conference of Atonement, she was asked by a journalist “What message do you think you give to women, when you are added fake curves to your body in order to publicize a perfume?”

A cheap polemic, but it was enough to get a rise out of Keira, who reacted by tossing her head back like a real diva and wearing a fiery gaze.
After denying that she ever had been padded for commercial reasons, she explained: “Films have to deal with fiction; and magazine photos are the same. When you go to a photo shooting session you are provided with the right make up, the right light, and then the image undergoes a Photoshop treatment. This said, I think that magazines are trying to show a variety of shapes and I want to see a variety of people too!”

 This is  really wishful thinking though, as we all know that magazines are not exactly pushing size 14 models forward.

Despite being lusted after by the masses -  also thanks to her skinny silhouette - Knightley has always been sensitive about eating disorders: one of her most famous quotes being “People said to me yesterday, 'How does it feel to be anorexic?' I had no idea that I was. I can safely say that I'm not. I've got a lot of experience with anorexia. My grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it. In a way it's good that it's out there and people are talking about it. It's quite interesting because it's normally high-achieving women who suffer from it because, I guess, they're control freaks.”

 It is interesting to note that Hepburn herself was long believed to be anorexic, when her skinniness depended on malnutrition during wartime. Is this the only trait d’union between the two stars?
Hopefully not for Knightley. 

Yet weight matters seem not to distract her from her work.
The first press screening of Atonement at the Venice Film Festival was wrapped up by a lukewarm applause (probably the only not-so-hot screening of Atonement ever)

But she talks about her character in an affectionate way: “When I read the script I immediately fell in love with the character of Cecilia. Although I had been cast as teenage Briony, I thought it was more interesting for me to explore a grown up woman than a young girl on the edge between childhood and womanhood.”
And given her stunning looks in the iconic emerald dress she wears in a crucial scene of the film, it is easy to agree with her.

Now it’s time for Knightley to make this womanhood blossom: not necessarily  by wearing a fuller figure, but from  playing more mature and complex characters.
Will she be able to stand the challenge?

Vera Brozzoni

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