Keira Knightley
To say that Keira Knightley had early aspirations to be a performer would be a gross understatement. When she was just three, Knightley famously asked her parents -- Sharman Macdonald, an award-winning playwright, and Will Knightley, a theater and television actor -- for an agent. After striving at school despite her dyslexia, Knightley's parents awarded their daughter an agent when she was seven. Knightley's otherworldly beauty was no doubt a factor when she began landing roles in amateur stage productions around London, but she would soon prove to the world that she was not just another pretty face. Not that there's anything wrong with a pretty face.
After a string of low profile roles in films like Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Hole, Keira Knightley did what every young actress looking to break out should do. She starred in a charming surprise hit about soccer and class division that went on to become the top-grossing British-financed and distributed film of all time, duh! The film was Bend It Like Beckham and it was the catalyst for the role that would change Knightley's life forever.
Many would agree that a movie about pirates starring Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom would be a hit no matter what actress joined them on their swashbuckling adventure. But who could argue that Keira Knightley's presence as the tough-as-nails Elizabeth Swann had nothing to do with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl's worldwide gross of over $650,000,000. Knightley did more than hold her own opposite cinematic titan Depp and fellow rising star Bloom on her way to becoming a bona fied action star. She went on to appear in the uber-lucrative sequels Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End before announcing that she would not return for the planned fourth installment. We guess that after helping the franchise gross $2.79 billion worldwide, Knightley felt it was time to move on. Unfortunately, she took the action thing a little too seriously and starred in the unfortunate films King Arthur and Domino before finally proving to critics that there was actually some major talent hidden beneath all that beauty.
It's only natural for people to be skeptical of a stunning young actress new on the scene, with questions about talent surfacing as frequently as rumors about boyfriends. Remember when Rosie O'Donnell started out? Well Keira's rise to prominence was no different. But after she starred as the plucky Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright's adaptation of Jane Austen's classic love story Pride & Prejudice the skeptics were silenced. The performance drew raves across the board and landed Knightley her first major nominations as best actress at the Golden Golbes and Oscars. Since then, Knightley has gone on to star in other high profile dramas include The Duchess and Atonement, for which she received her second Golden Globe nod. These days, seeing a period piece that features a strong female character without Knightley as the lead is akin to seeing a hackneyed Disney film without The Rock in the lead. It just doesn't fit.
Don't be surprised if there are more nominations in Knightley's future, with upcoming roles in the upcoming F. Scott Fitzgerald biopic The Beautiful and Damned, the crime thriller London Boulevard and the Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation Never Let Me Go.
There's a rule in Hollywood that if an actress is extremely fit, she usually suffers form an eating disorder. Again, remember when Rosie O'Donnell started out? Keira Knightley was no exception. With photos of her slender figure constantly being plastered all over newsstands, Knightley's career has constantly been plagued with rumors of anorexia, but the actress continues to deny the claims. After she emerged looking particularly gaunt at the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, she did admit that there was a history of anorexia in her family but again refuted notions that she suffered from the disease. In 2006, Keira sued the Daily Mail for printing a story that accused her for inadvertent being responsible for the anorexia-related death of a teenage girl. She was eventually awarded a settlement and no doubt celebrated with friends over cheeseburgers, Turkey stuffed with onion rings and pepperoni infused root beer floats.
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