Keira Knightley



"I'm a tomboy beanpole? I can't use a computer, so maybe I'm a bit out of the loop. I don't know whether to be flattered or not flattered. The beanpole bit, is that good? Can you be a sexy beanpole?"

A British actress (born 26 March 1985) who became subject to international recognition for her roles in Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) as Elizabeth Swann, a character she has reprised for a total of four of the franchise's films. She has since starred in a number of feature films, theater productions, and modeling campaigns.

Knightley oftentimes stars in Period Pieces playing a young woman approaching adulthood, usually the Spirited Young Lady or Rebellious Princess.


 * The Phantom Menace (1999)
 * Princess of Thieves (2001)
 * The Hole (2001)
 * Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
 * Love Actually (2003)
 * Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)
 * King Arthur (2004)
 * Domino (2005)
 * The Jacket (2005)
 * Pride and Prejudice (2005)
 * Atonement (2007)
 * The Duchess (2008)
 * The Edge Of Love (2008)
 * London Boulevard (2010)
 * Never Let Me Go (2010)
 * Last Night (2010)
 * A Dangerous Method (2011)
 * Seeking A Friend for the End of the World (2011)

"Jack Sparrow: "So unless you've got a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in that bodice--" (scans her briefly) "-- unlikely...""
 * Academy Award: Nomination for "Best Actress" in 2005
 * Brown Eyes
 * Celebrity Resemblance: Natalie Portman. At age twelve a then unknown Knightley was cast as Sabé, Queen Amidala's decoy in The Phantom Menace (1999), due to the strong resemblance between her and Portman. It was reported that the actresses looked so much alike that even their own mothers regularly mistook one for the other while filming. Although, in fairness, a lot of those scenes involved Impossibly Cool Clothes and Uncanny Valley Makeup (still, you be the judge).
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Most especially in Domino.
 * Dawson Casting: Inverted in Bend It Like Beckham.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Just listen to her commentary with Jack Davenport on the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Has had a tendency post-Pirates to go topless in just about everything. Though when she was cast in Domino, she explicitly refused to bare her butt on screen.


 * Pretty in Mink: She wore fur for Doctor Zhivago (2002).
 * Wore a white rabbit shoulder wrap at her 21st birthday.
 * Romance on the Set: Rupert Friend (the one that looks like Orlando Bloom) on the set of Pride And Prejudice (2005).
 * Of Corsets Sexy - The Duchess, Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as almost every film she's been in.
 * Schmuck Bait: Fell for one when she was the guest of The Daily Show after Jon Stewart suggested to google "santorum" because of Rick Santorum, an (at the time) lesser-known GOP candidate.
 * Separated At Birth Casting: She played Natalie Portman's decoy bodyguard in The Phantom Menace. Reportedly, when both actresses were in full makeup, not even their mothers could tell which was which. The disguise was so perfect that people often forget that Knightley had a role in the film at all.
 * Typecasting:
 * As the plucky, ahead-of-her-time girl in period films
 * Essentially this generation's Winona Ryder.
 * Brutally subverted in The Duchess, in which she begins appearing to play this, and was marketed as such, but swiftly runs head-first into the heinous values of the era. Hilarity does not ensue.
 * Wet Sari Scene: One of the gold standards of this trope in Atonement. Wow.