Actress Keira Knightley has said she had to go through "many years of therapy" after starring in the first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Knightley was just 17 years old when she stepped into the role of Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, where she partnered with Johnny Depp. The film became the fourth highest grossing of the year after earning over $654 million worldwide in 2003.
At the time, the film was expected to be a flop as the pirate genre had failed to deliver a successful film in years.
Ultimately, however, it launched Knightley and Depp, who at the time was mostly known for starring in cult films, to unimaginable fame.
In an interview with Variety, the English actress recounted how she dealt with overnight fame: "I think it's pretty awful. I'm not an extrovert, so that level of attention and that level of fame was very difficult for me. It was an age where you become what you're not and you have to make mistakes. It's a very insecure age, especially for women. You're still a kid in some ways. It was traumatic, but it set the stage for the rest of my career."
Thinking of her own daughter, Keira admitted she "really, really, really" hopes she doesn't pursue acting.
"I hope she becomes an environmental lawyer or something impressive, but I'm going to be the type of parent that's going to support her regardless of her interests," she said.
Keira explained that she was "incredibly hard on herself" in the early stages of her career.
"I was never good enough. I was totally goal-oriented. I was so ambitious. I was always trying to get better and better and get better, which is an exhausting way to live your life. Exhausting. I admire my 22-year-old self, because I'd like to get some more of it back. And it's only when I'm not like that anymore that I realize how extraordinary it was. But it comes at a price," the actress shared.
However, the Pirates of the Caribbean star wouldn't take anything back.
"I'm incredibly lucky now and my career is in a place where I really enjoy it and my fame is much less intense. I can deal with that now and that's great. But it wasn't so great at the time and it took me many years of therapy to figure it out," Knightley pointed out. | BGNES
