Keira gets political
Keira Knightley has done pirates and period dramas — now she’s angry about Iraq, in government thriller Official Secrets
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, OFFICIAL Secrets is another Keira Knightley period drama. “I was thinking of it as completely modern,” Knightley admits with a smile. “But when I got on set, [I realised] the clothes are actually a period thing.” That period is the early 2000s — no corsets here — and the story is a tough, serious political thriller about a real-life Iraq war whistleblower.
The British actor has made many interesting choices since her early Pirates Of The Caribbean/ Pride & Prejudice era — but never a meaty real-life political drama. The prospect intrigued her. “I’ve always loved political thrillers,” she says. “It’s a film genre I would always watch. But the opportunity is not one that’s come to me before. I was excited to do something completely different.”
She plays Katharine Gun, a translator working for British intelligence who, in 2003, leaked an incriminating internal memo about the Iraq war. Gun was later arrested; her immigrant husband was almost deported as a result of the leak. The character was a “fascinating” challenge for Knightley. “Her morality is absolute. When I met her, I asked her if she regretted it and she said she didn’t, despite what her and her husband went through. That’s not a common thing.”
It demanded a tough, understated performance, with Knightley’s preparation including dipping into the Chilcot report, the official inquiry into Iraq. The film, directed by Eye In The Sky’s Gavin Hood, flits from whistleblower thriller to All The President’s Men-style reporting (Matt Smith plays a journalist for The Observer) to courtroom drama (with Ralph Fiennes as the defending lawyer) — and offers no easy answers. “I think you still question whether [Gun] was right or wrong. I did when I read it. I’m on her side, but do I think everything should be out in the open? No, that would be chaotic. We need to have intelligence services that remain secret for our protection, but we also need to know that our institutions are bound by our laws.”
Yet Knightley — who has campaigned for Amnesty International, and appeared in a proremain commercial — claims to be less political than she could be. “I mean, I’m a very lazy person,” she says, self-deprecatingly. “I try to keep myself informed. I do read the newspaper. I do vote. Am I as politically active as I could be? Probably not. But am I interested? Yes.” With a story like Katharine Gun’s, it’s hard not to be. JOHN NUGENT