A smile like a kind of pearl: 2007

Wednesday 10 October 2007

No news

Hey everybody! There are no news and no pics today. It's been days since we've heard of Keira. Where are you, Kei??

Monday 8 October 2007

Wow, that was a huge update :) I'm really tired haha, but I really want to make this work, and thanks so much to the four people, I think, that voted for you fave Keira's movie! I really appreciate it, and I hope this grows! I'm doing what I can here! And with all the love of the world! And also thanks to all the people that at least have seen this blog, really because it is all for you, and for Keira, of course, and I put so much effort in it.
Love Keira♥
and
Thank you very much :)
I'm very, very grateful.

Love to all,
Vicki.

The Duchess

Here are a couple pics of the set of Keira's upcoming film The Duchess.

Keira and Rupert are adorable ♥

(Full view, please)

Keira Flying

Keira Knightley on life after "Pirates"

At the Toronto Film Festival, recent Best Actress nominee Keira Knightley talks to EW.com about her success in more sophisticated fare after spending several years swashbuckling her way through the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' series.

Could we be seeing the making of a great new actress-director team at this year's Toronto Film Festival? Could Keira Knightley and Joe Wright be the next Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz? The pair first met on 2005's well-received Pride & Prejudice; it was Wright's feature debut, and Knightley got a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet. Now they've both returned to Toronto — where Pride & Prejudice launched two years ago — with Atonement, an adaptation of Ian McEwan's 2002 novel, about a 13-year-old girl's lie and its consequences for two young lovers (Knightley and The Last King of Scotland's James McAvoy). The movie premiered to much praise at the festival on Monday night and is a possible Oscar contender this year.

EW.com talked to the 22-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star about why she wanted to make Atonement, how the Oscar nomination for Pride & Prejudice helped her career, and why she loves doing films in Britain.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you want to make this movie?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: It was definitely Joe. I knew I wanted to work with him as soon as we were done with Pride & Prejudice. I think the bond between actor and director is very similar to the chemistry between actors. It's rare, and when it happens, it's very exciting. And I think it creates — oh, I sound like a wanker! [Laughs] But, creatively, I think we work very well together for some reason.

What was appealing about the story?

I like the fact that I read the script and it made me sob, really sob. I cry a lot, but that kind of emotional reaction was extreme. The story was very heartbreaking. But [my taking the part] has much more to do with me looking for a more mature role, I wasn't really looking to play another girl on the cusp of womanhood. I felt that you couldn't really do that better than with [Pride & Prejudice's] Elizabeth Bennet, and I don't want to play the same thing again and again and again. So, you know, Atonement checked off a lot of boxes as far as roles go.

Are you grateful to be done with Pirates?

It was a huge commitment. It was amazing. It was an extraordinary group of people. And you don't make films for an audience of one. You make them to be enjoyed by many. And I think entertainment for entertainment's sake is fine, and escapism is fine. And Pirates is like a glass of champagne; it's got a lot of bubbles and they make you very happy. And that's great. But if I was doing only that, then I'd get incredibly bored. And two years is a long time to be doing that one thing. And I think I was really desperate to find something completely different.

Did you do Atonement after you were entirely done with those films?

Well, no. I did this one in the middle.

That's a weird juxtaposition.

It was strange. I had five months off, because of various hurricanes that were happening at the time in the Caribbean. And I said, Okay, I could either take five months off completely, or I could try to do something that's going to really challenge me.

Has getting nominated for an Oscar in 2006 changed things for you?

No, not really — apart from the fact that it was a wonderful kind of pat on the back. I know that sounds like nothing, but it was actually really needed at that point. Before Pride & Prejudice, I'd done Bend it Like Beckham and Pirates, and they were incredibly successful films, but I think people were very much looking at me going, ''Oh, she's a pretty face, there isn't much else to her.'' And I was incredibly aware of that. I think you're aware of everything that's written about you when you first start. And then you learn not to read all that. [Laughs] And I knew people had thought it was ridiculous that I was cast as Elizabeth Bennet. So when the reviews came out, it really helped.

What's next?

I've got a film coming out next year, which my mom [playwright Sharman Macdonald] wrote. It's The Edge of Love, which is about Dylan Thomas. I play his childhood sweetheart. It's with Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys. Hopefully, fingers crossed, that'll be a good one. And next week, I start a film called The Duchess, which is about Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire. It's got Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling.

Is it important for you to keep doing British films? Do you want to keep shuffling between Hollywood and British film industries?

Of course. Of course!

Because other people would say, ''If you can make it in Hollywood ...''

Why would you do British films as well? Well, I think if you can possibly do both, then that's really amazing.

Hollywood isn't distracting enough to keep you there forever?

No, it's not. Obviously, I want to work there, it would be stupid for anyone not to. They make more films in Hollywood for English speaking actors than anywhere else in the world. Naturally, you're going to get more work there than you are in England. And the history of Hollywood if you're in movies is very, very exciting. But I'm British. That's the culture I come from. It fascinates me. I think also, you know, the British film industry is tiny, but at the moment, there's such a huge wealth of talent that it's a really exciting time. I think obviously we have incredible crews that work in Britain, and if I can help bring work there in a small way to make sure that those people are working, then that's great.

Are you more comfortable on a British set?

I don't know. I like going home at night and sleeping in my own bed. I travel a lot. And for Pirates, we were all away for two years. Once I got to the end of that, I said, ''Whew, I really want to do some work in England.''

This interview it's not quite new, but I really thought it was very interesting! (It's from September 12th) Anyway here's the source: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20054213_20054215_20056110,00.html

News on Atonement

Atonement climbed back up one place to No.2 at the UK box office last weekend, taking another £1.16m.

Atonement and Keira are already top of the polls for Oscar predictions. See the polls here: http://www.moviecitynews.com/awards/2008/gurus_070925.html

The LA Times has an Atonement audio interview with Keira. You can hear it here: http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2007/10/podcast-dishing.html

News on Silk

Keira is due to attend the Rome Film Festival next month to promote Silk.

Read the full article:

"Stars line up for Rome film fest

ROME , Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Dozens of the world’s most popular movie stars plan to travel to Italy next month for the second annual Rome Cinema Festival.

Slated to appear during the eight-day film series are Sophia Loren, Cate Blanchett, Keira Knightley, Halle Berry, Monica Bellucci, Sharon Stone, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, the Italian news agency, ANSA, reported Friday.

The festival is scheduled to run from Oct. 19-27 and will feature screenings of movies from 40 different countries, including: "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "El Pasado," "Juno," "Lions for Lambs," "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead," "Silk," "Reservation Road," "Mongol," "Things We Lost in the Fire," "Le Deuxieme Souffle" and "Youth Without Youth."Fourteen of the movies will compete for the top Marcus Aurelius prize.

In another festival highlight, Loren will be honored with a lifetime achievement award for her body of work on the final day of the event."

Source: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2007/09/28/stars_line_up_for_rome_film_fest/5002/

Another article about Silk, featuring interviews with Keira and François.

Read it:

"Falling in love with the feel of Silk

British actress Keira Knightley was shooting Pirates of the Caribbean in the Bahamas when a friend mailed her the novel Silk, by the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco."He wrote a note saying, 'I just read this. I think you're going to love it,' " remembers the brunette beauty, who swept into Toronto earlier this month to promote two films at the film festival: Silk (which opened commercially yesterday) and Atonement (opening later this year). "And I did. Completely and absolutely adored it. "

To read the complete article you have to pay, if you want to, here's the source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20070929.SILK29%2FTPStory%2FTPEntertainment%2FMovies%2F&ord=50244&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true

Silk is now playing at just 83 cinemas across the US and has a total tally of just under $700,000. It should fare much better in Japan, where it will premiere as part of the Tokyo Film Festival on October 28th. No sign of a UK premiere in Leicester Square's calendar, but the movie opens here on November 9th.

Sunday 7 October 2007

Nothing is real but the girl

Keira Knightley interview- Lula Magazine

Charlotte: Hello Keira, how are you?

Keira: Very well thank you.

I gather at the shoot yesterday, as well as a long conversation about fish, you were talking about music?
Well, I don’t really know that much about music, but I do love it. Like this guy called Josh Ritter. For my 21st birthday party my parents and my agent arranged for him to play as a complete surprise. My jaw was literally on the floor! And I got so embarrassed I couldn’t speak to him at all.

Do you have songs or albums you particularly love too?
I normally listen to the same albums over and over again, so, Nirvana Unplugged. And I’ve got a Julie London album, she’s completely fabulous, and Billy Eccleston, all that kind of 40s, early 50s lounge music that I love. And I love folk music. I love the words. If I can hear the words, and if it’s as simple as possible, you know, just a man and a guitar. I like that, it’s like they are telling a story.

So, if you like words are you a poetry person, or a novel person too?
There are a couple of Pablo Neruda poems that are so romantic. Some Dylan Thomas I love, but I’m not someone who can pick a book of poetry up and get lost in it. I’m a biography person. I love them. Though I’m not very good at finishing books.

How about when you were little?
I really loved P G Wodehouse’s Blandings series. I love them. I couldn’t read very much though, so I had them all on audiotapes. Completely brilliant. Another one that’s good for curling up with, have you read any Georgette Heyer?

Oh, yes! All the time when I was small.
My mum and I love them, and my agent adores them too. They’ve just re-released them, and I keep on going to look at them in the shop, but you just can’t sit on the train reading a Georgette Heyer, too embarrassing. I nearly bought a cover so that I could carry them around, reading them!

Reading them is like eating candyfloss?
Yes, but they’re so witty! I went to the exhibition about female writers recently, and there was a picture of her.

What did she look like?!
Quite unexpected. The quote was amazing though. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something like: ‘I should be shot for what I write, it’s such drivel.’ Complete genius. I love the fact that she knows what it is, and she doesn’t try to pretend that it’s anything other than candyfloss. My mum always says to me: ‘I think you’re a writer.’ Which is bollocks, it’s just because she’s my mum. But writing was the reason she had me. She only started writing when she was 33, and the first script that she sold was the one that meant she had enough money to have another baby, and I was that baby. I was paid for by a script.

Your fate was sealed.
Yes. But I think it give you great hope that at every stage of life, things change, you change…

And new opportunities arise. At the moment in our culture, we seem to only celebrate what very young people do, and everything else is ignored.
I think it puts a terrible pressure on people that shouldn’t be there. If you look at films, Jesus, I started when I was 16 but it gives people and unrealistic idea about things. I think it’s such a shame there aren’t grown-ups in the industry. I don’t see enough women in their forties who I can aspire to. I’d quite like something or someone to aspire to! I mean, I’m 22, but there are so many young girls always appearing in the industry.

And you have people always trying to look young, having plastic surgery at 30.
I’m sorry: they’re having it at 20! I like expression. I like wrinkles.

Have you seen Away From Her, directed by Sarah Polley with Julie Christie? It’s great and focused on an older woman.
No, but I’m longing to because I’m such a fan of Sarah Polley. Have you ever seen a film, I think it’s called My Life Without You? About a woman who is dying, who has young children? She’s so good and understated in it. And I love her teeth. She doesn’t have perfect teeth and I always find that really comforting. Because people shouldn’t be perfect! Particularly not on film. Never, but especially not on film. I think it’s the imperfections that make a face interesting, and beautiful.

The same with many celebrity magazines. They’re so bland.
It’s weird; you think they might as well just paint the faces. But then, saying that, I don’t say, don’t take my spots away, when I have my photo taken!

I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with the fantasy, and with the idea of creating beautiful images.
No, but I think that’s where we’ve gone wrong, because they are meant to be a fantasy, but where the line has blurred is that we all go, no, but that should be reality. But that’s not the point of it. Beautiful pictures are wonderful, like a glass of champagne.

There’s not very much room for difference in the way people are presented now.
I make my mum come with me every time I go to LA, because otherwise I can’t handle it, and she’s got very long grey hair, the most phenomenal hair you’re ever seen, beautiful. And of course, she’s got lines, and whenever she goes to LA, she gets people stopping her in the street going: Oh my god! You’re so brave. Literally, women stop her in the street.

How do you find LA?
I’ve got friends who go there and love it for what it is, and don’t take it very seriously, I can’t quite do that. I need to learn to laugh at it. It’s very different. To sound incredibly poncy, it doesn’t come from smoking roll-up cigarettes with liquorice papers and a glass of red wine and talking the night away until you have interesting ideas. It comes from a very manufactured place. It’s so strange, all those women standing there, all looking identical, all immaculate with the same clothes.I think going out there as a young woman can make you feel weird. It’s like being at school and being the odd girl out, you just want to fit in. I feel very self-conscious when I am over there about the way that I dress, or the way I am. I can’t drive yet either, so I can’t get about anywhere, you can’t walk anywhere.

Freaky, it’s like you’re not allowed that independence.
It is freaky. I go and get my nails done something I would never do in London, just so that I can sit and be with and watch people.

So no plans to move out there then? Is home definitely in Britain? Could you ever live anywhere else? New York?
Home is Britain. I think I could live in New York. It’s the sort of place where you can walk down the street in a ball gown, and no one would think twice.

And every girl needs that option. How about Paris?
The great thing about Paris is you’ve got the tourists, but it’s still very much the Parisian’s city. I like places with their own identity. And I love the cafés in Paris – they have tables designed for just one person. My mother borrowed a friend’s flat and finished writing a script there. She had the cafés where she wrote in the morning, and others in the afternoon, it’s great that there are cities out there where you feel that you can and should do just that. There is a history of it.

When you look back at them, how do you feel about the films that you’ve made?
As soon as I’m in a film, I can’t watch it and go: Isn’t it great?

Do watch them at all?
Well, I haven’t watched all of them, let’s say. It’s strange watching yourself. It’s true of that particular moment, but you would always – even the day afterwards – you would do something different. So watching yourself a year or so after filming, you go: Why on earth did I do it like that?!

I suppose you’re always going to be moving as a person.
Hopefully. I think the moment that you are actually happy with a performance, that’s probably the time to stop. You should never feel comfortable.

Isn’t that exhausting?
Yes. The last film I did, I filmed for two months, not long, but it was really intense, and we were doing eight scenes a day. It was amazing, but I got to the end of it and got really depressed. You are totally immersed in it for that time, and then when it goes, it goes suddenly. It’s not a profession for a sane person. I don’t think it goes hand in hand.

It must be endless highs and lows…
That’s exactly what it is, huge highs and lows. I think it’s only really designed for people who are slightly unstable, who emotionally run the gauntlet. You meet any actress, they’re all neurotic, it is the only way that it works!

I’m amazed that people can do it.
Yes. I mean they’re mad! It’s the only plausible explanation! God knows what they’re doing to themselves. Watching writers as well, especially novelists or playwrights, watching them go into their world. My mum has always been in two places at one. Ever since I was little there was the real world, and there was the story world, and she’d be talking in real world, but you’d know that she was actually in story world. You know, the film we’ve just finishes, she wrote the screenplay, and she lived with these characters, and I felt really sad when we actually started making the film because all of a sudden we took her characters. We’re incredibly close, and I would see in a funny way it was devastating.

Did she come to the set?
She came for about a week, and then it was too much. But suddenly she’s out of that world, and has to try and find another one to live in. it was terrifying thinking what Ian McEwan would make of the film Atonement – it must be strange because it’s not his anymore, it’s the directors. He created Cecilia, and I think describes her as a blonde, blue-eyed and slightly horsy, he’s through about this person so much. Then I come along, and I’m not that person at all. I’d be so sad one person had been killed off by another version of them.

Do you still get a kick out of the highs and lows of filming?
Yes, at the moment I do. But I don’t know. It used to be all I ever wanted, even when I was tiny. That world. It’s such an incredible world, for a small person to peek into, it’s magic. Even though you are seeing behind the magic of films and theatre, it’s still magic. And I think if you lose that, you shouldn’t be in it. And I think that women in particular lose it much more quickly than men do. I think women get incredibly self-conscious. And much as I can sit here at 22 and say: Isn’t it great to have lines, I think when you get older you realise how close the camera is, I think you become aware of yourself and I don’;t think that’s very nice, and I think the magic goes.

What were you like when you were little? From what you’ve said you sound quite precocious.
Yes. Pretty much! My mum always used to say I was born aged 45 and I’d meet myself at 22 and a half. Which is in September so I’m looking forward to being able to regress. I never liked the idea of being young. Weird. Teenager-dom wasn’t very comfortable. My twenties are good.
When you think about growing up, would you move somewhere green, to the countryside?
I don’t know. I’ve been sort of flirting with the idea, I don’t really go out that much in London, I mean I like it, but I don’t really use the clubs or anything like that. And I do love it that my boyfriend’s mum has this incredible garden where she grows all her own vegetables, and I love going there. What I can’t figure out is if I’d love it everyday.

It would be wonderful, but you have to be brave to do it.
I do think you need to have incredible internal resources.

And not really, really want that dress you saw in Vogue!
Yes. Yes, and I’m not quite there yet! For all that I love fresh peas and home grown vegetables, I hate to say it but I have completely bought into consumer culture and I do go oooh over clothes! I have this terrible thing when I’m shopping of buying clothes for someone else. You know, if I were this person, I would wear these all the time! Then you get it home and go: I’m not that person, I never will be. I’d love to be one of those women who wear high heels all the time.

As if they were slippers?
Exactly! I did a shoot the other day and they gave me a pair of the shoes I was wearing, these amazing Chanel platforms. I was like: Right, fuck it; they’re never coming off. I wore them to the shops on Edgware Road and stacked it. Fell over in the middle of Edgware Road, had to walk home barefoot.

Ok, final question, what’s your favourite Kirsten Dunst film?
That’s so hard. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I love the bit where she’s dancing on the bed in her knickers.

welcome!

Hello everybody! I'm Vicki from http://www.fotolog.com/keeiraa and I realised that my obsession with Keira had got far enough to create my own blog about her. The idea is to keep a daily "journal" with news about Keira: What she's doing, new pictures, etc, without losing -let's hope- the escence and esthetic of my fotolog. I hope this lasts, really, and I hope to learn how to use this well hehe, so plaease be patient because it will take some time. I really admire Keira, not only because she's beautiful and stylish, I'm always aknowledged of everything she does and says, and I admire her as an actress and as a person, I always agree to everything she says. I've seen most of her movies, read every single interview, seen every single video and seen every single picture... so I'm really serious about this, I've been following her career for more than a year now and I'm very interested in it, she's my idol, my role model, my best friend, and will always be. I will be 70 years old and I'll still be uploading photos in my fotolog and publishing entries in my blog, that's for sure. So, that's pretty much it... for now!
Love you Keira.
And a warm welcome to all the other fans!
Vicki ♥

ps: I don't kow how to enter to my other blog (http://keirasmiles.blogspot.com/) I don't know what happened, with all that google account stuff... so I had to make a new one, and lets hope I can login with this one :)

Wednesday 10 October 2007

No news

Monday 8 October 2007

Hey everybody!

The Duchess

Keira tops the list of "Hollywood Young Stars"

Keira Flying

News on Atonement

News on Silk

Sunday 7 October 2007

Nothing is real but the girl

welcome!

A smile like a kind of pearl

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