New Delhi

Keira Knightley opened up about what the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise meant for her. Spiking to fame with the instant success of the franchise in which she starred opposite Johnny Depp, Keira revealed that while the films gave her fame and financial stability, they did her even greater harm – men stalked her and took her for being easy. 

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She recalled being “stalked by men” in her early 20s. 

The success took her privacy away

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Oscar-nominated actress said, “It’s very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing. Having said that, I wouldn’t have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the ages of 17 and 21-ish, and I’m never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost.”

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Keira Knightley rose to fame in 2003 at just 18 years old for her roles in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Love Actually. But she remembers that her roles in the Pirates franchise as Elizabeth Swann attracted the most unwanted and inappropriate behaviour from others.

Men stalked her post the success

Keira remembered that her “jaw dropped at the time” over how people treated her in public spaces. “I didn’t think it was OK at the time. I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that ‘you wanted this.’ It was rape speak. You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere.”

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She added, “They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it — it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye.”

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Keira now feels that the young girls have it harder because of social media and the constant pressure to be visible. She said, “Social media has put that in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that’s been done to young women, to teenage girls. Ultimately, that’s what fame is — it’s being publicly shamed. A lot of teenage girls don’t survive that.”