Knightley In Shining Armour
Long before body positivity, self-care and mental health became buzzwords, actor Keira Knightley was a strong advocate of these causes
Keira Knightley may have caught India’s attention when she played Jules in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham 20 years ago. But she truly caught my attention in 2007, when she won a libel case against the British tabloid, Daily Mail, after it falsely claimed that she suffered from an eating disorder.
Knightley was awarded £3,000 in damages; she donated double that amount to a charity that dealt with eating disorders and other mental health issues.
The actor, now 37, is a millennial in more ways than this one. At the peak of her career, Keira decided to take time off to focus on her personal life. Long before mental health was spoken about openly, she admitted to having a breakdown at age 22. And, back in 2014, when body positivity was far from being a buzzword, Keira appeared nude on the cover of Interview magazine on one condition: that the image would not be digitally altered to perfection.
“Once a part of the modelling sphere, I have experienced people grading you on a scale of one to ten. That’s the difficulty of being a woman in the contemporary world,” Keira says. “To all the women out there,” she continues, “I believe that what you have to say or think is more important than being channelised towards the world’s perspective of better living.”
Millennial not millennial
The former teen star has one important non-millennial trait, though: a lack of presence on social media.
Turns out, Keira’s biggest grouse with social media is that of over-connectivity: we don’t know when to switch off. “Whatever happened to meeting up with friends and going out for drinks?” she asks. “Whether it’s being out for the evening with friends, or at home, spending time with family, that balance is what we must all try to create.”
Does that mean we will never see Keira interact with her fans on social media?
“Social media doesn’t just transform the way we interact, but also the way we live. Personally, I avoid its pitfalls by just not being on it,” she says.
India for a start
India has a special place in Keira’s heart. It was Gurinder Chadha’s film after all, that catapulted her into the big league.
“When shooting for Bend It… the amazing hospitality was on full display,” says Keira. “I remember thinking how kind the Indian family was.”
As talk veers to the pandemic, Keira admits she has some habits she must shake off. “I had been wearing pyjamas all day during the lockdowns and all fashion rules felt irrelevant,” she says.
But hat doesn’t mean she’s not ready to return to normalcy. “I want to organise reunions with friends, family and co-workers. I want to do in-person networking. I need the mobility to explore the world and make an optimistic beginning to the life ahead.”
I don’t know about starring in a Bollywood film, but I do know that the industry is peppered with amazing talent KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, Actor