- Title: A Life in Pictures 2018: Keira Knightley on working with Joe Wright
- Date: 17th December 2018
- Summary: A Life in Pictures
- Description:Keira Knightley was interviewed by Jason Solomons for BAFTA's A Life in Pictures series at their Piccadilly headquarters in London, U.K. on Friday 17 December 2018. KK: I had been obsessed by Pride and Prejudice since I was about eleven. I had a dolls house that was Pemberley and a cottage that was Longbourne?Longbourne? It is Longbourne, isn?t it? ?And I used to write letters from the sisters to each other and they were tiny like that and my mum still has them, they?re still in the dolls house. I think it was a character that I had?like many people you get completely obsessed by her, I was completely obsessed by her I think to the point where when my agent said ?they want to offer it to you,? I said ?please turn it down because I can?t do that. That?s too frightening.? And luckily she didn?t listen to me. [Laughter] But so yeah, I just loved her so much. JS: It comes across the respect you have for her and for the text, but everyone had as well. Although Joe Wright I don?t think had actually read Jane Austen. KK: No I?m sure Joe hadn?t, no, of course he hadn?t. I mean no he?d obviously read it before we did it but I don?t think he?d read it. You know we had a really?he wanted somebody else for Elizabeth Bennett and at that point for me Pirates of the Caribbean had come out and it had done really well so I think the producers basically said ?look if you take Keira then you get X amount of money and if you have the unknown it?s going to be a lot less.? So he went ?oh f *k alright.? [Laughter] So he flew over to Montreal where I was doing a film and was sort of forced to meet me and his plane was delayed and I was getting up very early the next morning to go filming. And I didn?t want to do it, this was still at the point where I was like ?no, no, no I?m not doing it.? And he was just f king angry. And we had this disastrous meeting at about ten o?clock at night where we hated each other, and I sort of said to my agent Lindy ?oh my God that was awful,? and he clearly said it was awful and somehow once again the producer said ?no really, you?ll get more money if you have this girl, so maybe when you?re back in London you should just meet each other again,? and we met each other at the Covent Garden Hotel and I suddenly realised he?s a little sht and I?m a little sht and the end of the meeting he was looking at me and I thought it was really cool to have very low trousers, really baggy, really low, and he was like, ?Keira pull your trousers up,? and I turned around and went ?f*k off,? and he went ?brilliant.? [Laughter] And that?s been our relationship ever since. JS: Ever since! It?s done you alright hasn?t it? How the muse was born. But it wasn?t just?that collection in that film, there?s you, there?s Carey Mulligan, there?s Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland. And Judi Dench in there! KK: The cast?there were some amazing, I mean?I think it was Talulah Riley who?d been so obsessed by the book and she?d never acted before, she played Mary Bennett and she just sat outside the casting director?s office until the casting director saw her. I feel like all of us in one way or another had been completely obsessed by it. And for me at nineteen it was sort of the first time I?d worked with people or been around people who were my own age who were all completely obsessed with the same thing, which was acting. So I became very good friends with Carey Mulligan on that and very good friends with Rosamund Pike on that and we all just became this?and got a boyfriend out of it, which is always nice. You know we became unbelievably close. JS: They?re not contractual, though? KK: They?re not contractual but they should be because sometimes it?s a good thing. And Simon Woods who played Mr Bingley is still one of my closest friends. It was a very special?a little bit like Bend It Like Beckham one of those times you think is normal but actually is really quite magical. Joe put on lots of parties, he?s very into that idea of everybody bonding together and we had this two week rehearsal period before which is very rare in films, where we just hung out and stuck together and were stupid together. I think his whole idea of just making it a bit scruffy and a bit kind of lived in. JS: It had that. It had the muddy hems and geese everywhere. KK: And he didn?t want the hair to be?the hair was all a bit funny and a bit f *ked up, it was all?it felt real. And I think he really got that energy of these five girls in all their mess, which he celebrated. JS: And Donald Sutherland just calmly looking over it all. KK: Donald Sutherland just being extraordinary the whole time, yeah. JS: The scene we saw with the rain, was it raining?how much extra? KK: No, it was a lot of extra rain. It was freezing cold.... Joe?I think this is a reason I love working with him is he loves dialogue and speed, you earn your pauses. It?s got to be?people think quickly, they speak quickly, that pace is really, really important to him and it?s something that actually over my career I?ve loved. And it?s intrinsically why I love 1940s films; you just hear these spitfire people that just whip off this dialogue. So Joe with that scene it was?in all the audition pieces he was just like ?faster, faster, faster, faster, faster.? And it was Joe?s idea it was this argument that comes towards this kiss. And then the kiss and the realisation of the kiss is the pause. You earned that pause. It?s a very special pause. Throughout the three films I?ve done with Joe what I?ve loved is you find those earned pauses and they can be kind of magic each time. ... KK: Thanks. It?s the ?sorry.? It was always, when I read it, it was almost my favourite part of the whole thing and it still is. It?s?oh God it was so well?just as a piece of writing but also that idea that two people after all that time and so much history try and communicate and there are no words that you could possibly find that could communicate it. It actually makes me cry thinking about it. But you know?yeah I loved playing that. JS: I love the spoon. KK: The spoon and the hand and the not knowing. Everything. I remember doing it and I can?t remember whether it was the grip or one of the sparks, but you know one of those very manly jobs, and he had tears running down his face, and it was like ?oh ok,? you know, yeah. JS: There?s a bit of Brief Encounter. KK: Totally Brief Encounter. Yes, totally, of course. JS: ?Flat in Balham.? KK: ?A tiny flat in Balham.? Yes. ?Terribly, terribly,? and all of that. You know when I originally talked to Joe about it he said, you know, ?I don?t want to do it naturalistic. I want to do it in this very 1940s clipped English style.? He?s always had a problem with naturalism, or he?s always felt its confines. So I think that was the first time he was going ?I want to do something that isn?t trying to be naturalistic.? So we were all given homework of 1940s English films, so Celia Johnson, obviously Brief Encounter, just that idea of culturally we?re very interesting in what we don?t say and how we deal with ?that?s terrible isn?t it. Somebody?s died that?s terrible. Oh well.? That kind of quality. JS: But there?s been a war! KK: ?There?s been a war so everyone?s dying! We won?t talk about it, we?re just going to carry on!? It was great fun letting go of the shackles of naturalism in a funny kind of way and going for this very clipped, very English sort of thing. ... KK: You allow everything to kind of bubble underneath the surface and with that particular character she was sort of atrophied; she couldn?t move forward, she couldn?t move back, she couldn?t express herself. It was a sort of bubbling emotion, bubbling sexuality that she didn?t know what to do with and it just sort of burst out. Performing it, it was really interesting because it was all about keeping the lid on it but something like the touch of a hand can be so electric. JS: There are massive gestures within that tiny thing. ... KK: Well I think with Pride and Prejudice it was the first time they?d cast?the book is based around characters who are nineteen or about that, late teens, early twenties. And it was the first time on film that it had been shown being as young as it was, which actually when you go back and you read the book it makes sense of a lot of how they behave because of course they?re so young and it?s the first time. So I think that?s why it made a lot of sense. And you?re right, the tragedy of Atonement being that they died. The waste of that youth. JS: And the power of storytelling as well, because your little sister in it. KK: The lie. JS: The amazing Saoirse Ronan, I think it was her first role. KK: I don?t think it was her first one, it might have been her second one, but f*king hell. [Laughter] I think she was like twelve, you know, and you just think ?oh God.? JS: But you?d done that KK: No, no, but there are some talents that are just born whole. And I can?t claim to be a talent that was born whole. She came out that way and she?s still as brilliant.
- Collection: BAFTA
- Genre:Entertainment
- Producer:BAFTA
- Keywords: BAFTA; British Academy of Film & Television; A Life in Pictures; 2018; Keira Knightley; 195 Piccadilly; Celebrity; Event; Arrives; Showbiz; Arts; Entertainment; Pirates of the Caribbean; acting
- City: London
- Country: United Kingdom
- Transmission Date:17/12/2018
- Decade: 2010s