Keira Knightley has had some unimaginable roles over time, from a enjoyable teen comedy, Bend it Like Beckham, to Satisfaction & Prejudice, to Atonement, to The Imitation Sport. However for a lot of followers, she’ll at all times be Elizabeth Swann, the fearless, sharp-witted heroine from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. And whereas she made swashbuckling and sword-fighting look simple, it seems filming wasn’t at all times clean crusing for the actress—particularly when it got here to stunts.
In a behind-the-scenes clip just lately shared by the Instagram account Cineatomy, Knightley revealed that she initially thought the films primarily based on theme park sights can be a breezy job. However she rapidly realized the action-packed function had different plans for her. She recalled:
After I first learn the script, I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is gonna be simple, I’ll sit behind carriages, I’ll put on fairly clothes, I’ll pout a bit, you already know it’ll be tremendous.’ However really, I’ve had quite a lot of stunt work to do, which, for someone as lazy as me, has been relatively difficult.
One significantly nerve-wracking second got here when she needed to carry out a excessive dive off a ship’s plank. She admitted that standing on the plank for 2 complete days had her fully petrified. When director Gore Verbinski instructed her she didn’t need to undergo with the stunt, she wasn’t about to again down. She continued:
So when the time got here to leap off, Gore, the director, mentioned to me, ‘You don’t have to do that, we are able to get Sonya, your stunt lady, to do it.’ I used to be like, ‘I’ve been standing up right here for 2 days. Do you actually assume that I’m not gonna bounce off this factor?’
Speak about dedication! And whereas she could have been terrified, she was all smiles as soon as she hit the water. She recounted:
I believe I got here up smiling really, it was unbelievable. I used to be simply so glad that I had hit the water, and I used to be nonetheless alive, and that the shark hadn’t jumped out and eaten me. You recognize, it was nice.
It’s secure to say Knightley’s Pirates of the Caribbean expertise was much more consistent with the greatest motion films than she anticipated. From epic sword fights to daring escapes, Elizabeth Swann held her personal alongside Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, proving to be one of many franchise’s greatest characters.
Although she bowed out of the sequence after At World’s Finish (solely briefly returning for a cameo in Useless Males Inform No Tales), the Black Doves performer’s portrayal of Elizabeth stays iconic. And figuring out she tackled lots of her personal stunts makes her efficiency much more spectacular.
For followers eager to relive Keira Knightley’s swashbuckling journey, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and its sequels can be found to stream with a Disney+ subscription. There’s been quite a lot of buzz about what’s subsequent for the franchise, however one factor’s for certain: due to the younger actress’s power, Elizabeth Swann will at all times be a sea legend.
Keira Knightley’s subsequent large undertaking is a book-to-movie adaptation of The Girl in Cabin 10, which is hopefully set to be launched someday within the 2025 film schedule.