Knightley Attraction

You have to keep reminding yourself she's only 23. Because Keira Knightley's already got a body of work most Hollywood veterans would kill for.

It seems years ago now she kicked off her career in the cult movie "Bend it Like Beckham" before finding her sea-legs in "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Of course, these days Keira's better known for her stunningly glamorous roles.

But off-screen this superstar's anything but a preening princess.

As Michael Usher discovered, she's earthy, irreverent, one of the boys.

Special features:

BLOG: Michael Usher on meeting Kiera Knightley.

Full transcript:

MICHAEL USHER: New York's movers and shakers are turning out to see and be seen with Keira Knightley. Right now, the world is crazy for this young Londoner, and she is literally dazzled by all the attention. Keira, from 60 Minutes, how are you?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I am all right, how are you?

MICHAEL USHER: How are you going here on the red carpet?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I nearly had an epileptic fit. But, apart from that, it was fine.

MICHAEL USHER: There is a lot of lights, a lot of attention.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I can't actually see you. It's really odd.

MICHAEL USHER: You are blinded?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Blinded, yeah. Do you think I could sue for that?

MICHAEL USHER: Maybe you can. It is America, you can do what you want. You're in New York, it is the land of opportunity.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Brilliant.

MICHAEL USHER: The red carpet veterans around here are happy to strike a pose, but Keira is not taking her time in the spotlight too seriously. How does it work on the red carpet? Do I get you to do a turn or a twiz or do you tell us who you're wearing? What is the red carpet style?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: What would you like me to do? Do you want me to do a turn? I would feel a bit like a monkey, but I don't mind feeling like a monkey. Would you like me to turn? There you go.

MICHAEL USHER: I do not want you feeling like a monkey, no. You did very well. Life is pretty good for Keira Knightley. Yet another new film and, already, they're talking Oscar. This time for 'The Duchess' - An 18th-century costume drama with rib-crushing corsets and outrageous wigs.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: They were like a bird cage with hair over the top, so they were very heavy, and there was one of them that was about 2-feet high with 2 feet of feathers on top of that and, literally, I could not hold my head up so they had to build me a stand, a wooden stand, that I could rest on between takes. And then at the end of this very long scene I could not keep my head up for the whole scene, it kept on going like that, so the camera guy said, "Look, we have to do something." So someone had to stand behind me for my close-up and take the weight of the wig so I could just keep my head up long enough for this shot that we did. So, you know, I suffer for my art, obviously.

MICHAEL USHER: That gives a whole new meaning to 'supporting cast', doesn't it?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Absolutely, definitely.

MICHAEL USHER: Strapped in like that in all those outfits and costumes, could you around? Could you eat?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Oh, God, no! Well, yes, you can eat, but it sort of gets stuck about there, so it's sort of means that you are belching for the rest of the day. You are looking incredibly ladylike but it was me and the lovely Hayley Atwell, who plays Bess Foster in the film, just belching and belching and belching. Two very windy women, it was very embarrassing.

MICHAEL USHER: 'The Duchess' is the latest in a long line of films for one so young. Hard to believe, but Keira Knightley is still just 23. Her breakthrough was the unlikely hit 'Bend It Like Beckham'. But then came the blockbusters 'Love Actually'... ..the swashbuckling adventures with Johnny Depp in those three 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films... ..and, then, critical acclaim in those two English masterpieces - 'Pride And Prejudice', and 'Atonement'. You are pretty busy, aren't you? You don't seem to stop working. You have crammed an awful amount in.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Well, yes, I haven't actually got anything coming up, which is great. I'm a bit fancy free, and that is nice. It is lovely not knowing what I'm doing next. and I find that very exciting.

MICHAEL USHER: And what does Keira Knightley do in her down time?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Luckily, nothing I have to give an interview about, fortunately.

MICHAEL USHER: And that's a good thing?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: That's a very, very, very good thing.

MICHAEL USHER: Come on, you're not enjoying this? This isn't not fun, sitting down?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: This is great fun, you know, but - no, lots of sort of cooking and watching movies.

MICHAEL USHER: That sounds very homely and very low-key for a superstar.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: You know, I think if you are travelling all over the world all the time, and you live out of suitcases and you stay in lots of hotels, which is great and amazing, and lovely hotels sometimes, but, it is just really nice to sort of get home and make a bowl of pasta and be on your own time.

MICHAEL USHER: Truth is, Keira does not get much of her own time but she is no overnight success. She set her sights on acting from an early age, with appearances on British television. After all, it is in her blood. Dad is an actor, Mum is a playwright. Even they were surprised when, at just three years old, Keira asked for an agent. You wanted one from three, you got one at six.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Yes, very persistent.

MICHAEL USHER: How was that negotiated with Mum and Dad?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: It was actually because I am dyslexic and I got diagnosed with dyslexia when I was six years old and my mum and dad had always gone, "Absolutely not having a child actress for a daughter. Completely not going to happen." And then they found that I could not read and so my head teacher at that time said, "OK, you need to find a carrot to dangle in front of her to make her work." So it was - they found the perfect carrot, and it did make me, and I think because I did find reading so difficult - you are suddenly having to go up in front of lots of adults and read the script and try and act from it - it doesn't half make you find a way of figuring out how to do it.

MICHAEL USHER: What an inspiration, gosh!

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I know, what a weirdo.

MICHAEL USHER: A weirdo? Not a weirdo.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Oh, I think so, I think so. Strange little person.

MICHAEL USHER: And do you struggle with dyslexia now?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: No, no - I don't notice it. My spelling is really bad but, apart from that, fine.

MICHAEL USHER: And look where it led you.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: There you go. Yep - I can now read a script! It is all good.

MICHAEL USHER: And, lately, those scripts have been very demanding. Ask any actor and they will tell you it is the sex scenes they dread the most and, in 'The Duchess', Keira's sex scenes are especially brutal.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I think as far as sex scenes go, they can be incredibly unnecessary, so you have to be sure when you are doing them that there is a real purpose. And I think that all of the ones in this we really discussed to make sure they were really different and symbolic and artistic, you know.

MICHAEL USHER: Yet, in 'Atonement ' there is the complete opposite of that scene. Possibly one of the hottest, strongest love scenes ever put on film.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Hey, that's good. If you going to do one, it might as well be the strongest. The amazing one about that is that you don't see anything - we are both fully clothed. So you can do a lot more with people's imaginations. But, as far as kind of doing it, it was quite extraordinary how choreographed that was. Absolutely everything was completely choreographed by the director beforehand.

MICHAEL USHER: It seems to take all the passion out of it in a sense?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: It is certainly not passionate when you do it but, I think, you do - you kind of, if you're gonna do it, you've gotta do it differently, or you've got to do it well, otherwise it is quite embarrassing to watch.

MICHAEL USHER: Do you get embarrassed watching yourself on film?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I do not enjoy watching myself on film.

MICHAEL USHER: Why not?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I think it is impossible to disassociate yourself from the person you are seeing. I do not really want to be that aware of what I look like when I'm angry, or when I'm sad or when I'm... I think the you could then kind of go, "Oh no, I know I don't look good then."

MICHAEL USHER: Because certainly in this latest film 'The Duchess' you are...

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: All through it.

MICHAEL USHER: Every scene, you are there. Your face is there on the big screen the entire time.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I was actually just sitting through it going, "God, you look weird."

MICHAEL USHER: There is something refreshing about Keira Knightley. Her partner Rupert Friend might be an actor, but most of her friends aren't. And they're not about to let Keira get carried away with her success.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: If you are friends with somebody you have to be nice to them. I don't think that any body would, kind of, I can't think of any other way to put it but up your own arse, which you obviously can't say on this program, um... so, what is the expression for 'up your own arse'?

MICHAEL USHER: It's 'up your own arse'. I'm not sure there's another way of saying it.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: No, you know, I'd just think I am in an incredibly fortunate position, you know, and I am very, very aware of that. And I don't think I need to shove that in anybody's face, and particularly not my friends.

MICHAEL USHER: I have read a few old articles where you use some quite salty language.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Yes, but you know what, my mum swears quite a lot, my dad does not swear. He says, you know, "You don't take drugs, you don't drink that much "you don't smoke, I mean, as far as it all goes, "the swearing is quite minor." Yeah, thanks. I'm allowed to, then.

MICHAEL USHER: That is your vice?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: That is my vice, swearing. And I really enjoy it.

MICHAEL USHER: Colourful language aside, for a Hollywood star Keira is a quiet success. Unlike many of her generation she is not pulp for the paparazzi. We don't see you falling out of clubs, we don't see you sort of wrestling the paparazzi. What do you do differently?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I don't know. I'm certainly not going to give my secrets away. You know, I do, I tried to stay as clear as I can away from it. You know, I tend to think also, you don't... it's sort of takes the illusion away from the film if you know too much about the person in it.

MICHAEL USHER: But in England particularly, she has fallen victim to the tall poppy syndrome. Targeted for being too thin, she successfully sued a London tabloid over claims of anorexia. In her defence, Keira says she has been a beanpole since she was a kid.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: You can only be who you are, you know, I am not going to kind of of let a load of people who I've never met before and who have never met me kind of give me strange advice which is actually just about selling papers. It is not real, it doesn't actually exist. And it is completely unhelpful for me and who I am which has nothing to do with that.

MICHAEL USHER: But, in new York it is Keira week. Film star, emerging fashion icon. The likes of Chanel and Bulgari throwing their best dresses and diamonds her way. And to think, it was just seven years ago when she pulled on the footy boots in 'Bend It Like Beckham'.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I never came into this with the sense that streets would be paved with gold, I always thought it was going to be a slog. And I've had it incredibly easy. And I am incredibly lucky. But it won't always be like that, you know, you can have a huge success and it just disappears. And for no reason whatsoever it can just go.

MICHAEL USHER: But if you weren't acting what would you do?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: No idea, no idea. I'll let you know when the offers stop coming. I'll let you know what I do.

MICHAEL USHER: I guess if that is all you have been thinking or dreaming about since the age of three it would be hard to imagine doing anything else.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: No, you know, I mean, if I ever do start imagining doing something else I'll probably do that. I think there is still lots of stuff to explore within this that I feel I haven't explored. And I certainly don't feel like I am the best actress that I could be, yet. But you know, I am sort of learning, and that's great.

MICHAEL USHER: Learning on the run?

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: Absolutely.

MICHAEL USHER: You are doing pretty well for learning on the go.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I am doing alright.

MICHAEL USHER: You are doing more than alright.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY: I'm alright.