Sometimes it’s hard to be a staggeringly beautiful woman – just ask Keira
Adastardly film director is going about trying to gain publicity for his new film – which I will not give the oxygen of publicity to – by abusing Keira Knightley, star of one of his previous, not too wellknown ventures. The opportunist in question, John Carney, dismissed the actress as a mere “supermodel”.
“I don’t want to rubbish Keira,” Carney condescended, “it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and selfanalysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet. Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that… I like to work with curious, proper film actors, as opposed to movie stars.” Asked if he had learnt anything from the experience, he added: “I learnt I’ll never make a film with supermodels again.” One imagines he won’t have the option. Keira herself has risen above such tawdry machinations and refused to comment. Allow me to intervene on her behalf. Ms Knightley, lest we forget, has been nominated for two Oscars, received lavish praise from other directors, and enjoys legions of fans.
I am proud to number myself one of these admirers. Her Lizzy Bennet had an unaffected naturalness and believability that doubtless brought many young readers to the novel. I loved her in the dystopian Never Let Me
Go, where she proved every bit as gut-wrenching as Carey Mulligan. Her performance in
Atonement went beyond the banalities of McEwan’s book.
She is also beautiful, it’s true – seriously, staggeringly, momentously beautiful. She is an old-school star, whose face, when captured by the lens, leaves us gaping as gazing. But for all the talk of the halo effect that comes with pulchritude, our attitude, when it comes to female loveliness remains tinged with misogyny.
Male visions such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt are considered no less serious. But we tut over aesthetically blessed women, deeming them vacuous, like the medieval churchmen who associated beauty’s allure with satanic cunning.
Beauty may not be a skill, but neither should it be considered a blight.