Keira goes for the gold!

Lesson Number One when making a critically acclaimed movie: Always listen to the director.
When Britain's hottest young star Keira Knightley was offered the role of Cecilia in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's 2002 best selling novel Atonement, she balked. Her heart was set on portraying the "middle" Briony, the melodrama's misguided villain.The saga begins in 1935 when a college-educated, housekeeper's son named Robbie (James McAvoy) falls in love with the upper class Cecilia. Her younger sister, Briony (Saoirse Ronan), an aspiring writer with a vivid imagination and schoolgirl crush on Robbie falsely accuses him of sexual assault. The accusation will irrevocably destroy two lives and crumble a third.It took three lunches to convince Knightley that director Joe Wright's instincts were correct. She must play the betrayed older sibling. A recent Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama, and a Best Picture bid should permanently retire any lingering doubts.Call it a case of deja vu. Wright was also responsible for casting Knightley as Jane Austen's heroine Elizabeth Bennet in 2005's Pride & Prejudice.Perched on a chair at the Regency Hotel, the 22-year-old native of Teddington, Middlesex, England bore little resemblance to her on-screen persona. Her hair hung dark and disheveled over her shoulders, she was dressed entirely in black that further emphasized her svelte figure and exquisite bone structure.It's quickly apparent that Knightley respects Wright's judgment. "We've always had an incredible creative relationship. I think the history between actor and director is as important as the onscreen chemistry between actors. We got to the point where he didn't have to say anything. I just knew what he wanted, which is an amazing place to be. But he wants collaboration with everybody and he wants discussion which I find very exciting," she said.Striving to capture the rhythm and styling of classic British movies, Wright conducted a three-week rehearsal period. Considerable time was spent on dialogue. "Joe directed us to deliver our dialogue lines swiftly, likening it to rain pattering down or bullets firing. That particular style of speaking is now lost. It's like doing an accent, yet it made everything easier," said Knightley, adding, "A lot of the time was spent watching mostly David Lee and Noel Coward collaborations like In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter which was completely fantastic."Another key component was fashion. "I'm sure that if you were rich in the '30s it was a very glamorous period. I loved working again with Jacqueline Durran [from Pride & Prejudice]. She makes you realize how important clothes are to the character being played. The clothes you see Cecilia in at the beginning of the film say a lot about who she is, about this glamour puss, this woman who has been raised to be a trophy bride and also what she's kind of rebelling against, being disgusted by. She's sort of like a pressure cooker ready to explode," Knightley explained.In daily life, clothing isn't a priority. She laughingly confided, "My red carpet look is created entirely by people other than myself and my street look can best be described as scruffy."As the daughter of actor Will Knightley and screenwriter Sharman MacDonald, acting is embedded in her DNA. In fact, the couple wholeheartedly supported her decision to quit school at 16 to pursue acting full time. She was already a decade long show biz veteran.At six, she appeared in the BBC television drama Royal Celebration and made her first big-screen debut as Sabe in George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace eight years later. Yet it was Knightley's portrayal as a soccer-mad tomboy in Gurinder Chadha's sleeper hit Bend It Like Beckham that clinched her claim to stardom.Another heroine, Elizabeth Swann, from Gore Verbinski's blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, generated a worldwide following and gave rise to the often asked question "Who is the better kisser – Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom?"Blushing slightly, Knightley confessed, "Stupidly I thought I was being clever and said James McAvoy. After doing Atonement, now the media has been asking me if James McAvoy really is a better kisser than Johnny Depp. Trust me. They are all good kissers and they have nothing to worry about."In real life, Knightley saves her kisses for boyfriend Rupert Friend, who played Mr. Wickham in Pride & Prejudice. Expect to see a lot more of Knightley in the coming year, since she recently wrapped The Edge of Love. Based on her mother's screenplay, Keira and Sienna Miller play two feisty, free spirited women connected by a charismatic poet (Cillian Murphy), who loves them both.Returning to period costuming, Knightley portrays Georgiana Spencer, an 18th century celebrity star, who became the Duchess of Devonshire at 17. Simply titled The Duchess, this love triangle bears some semblance to the recent English history since Georgiana finds herself wrestling with the idea of another women, Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell), bedding the Duke (Ralph Fiennes).