Pride and Prejudice is known to be one of the most iconic works of Keira Knightley. The movie based on the Jane Austen novel holds a huge fandom who love this adaptation starring the Pirates of the Caribbean star with the Succession fame Matthew Macfayden. The 2005 movie is also known for kickstarting a series of collaborations between director Joe Wright and Knightley. When the actress gave an interview to Graham Norton, she revealed many backstage stories to the audience.
Keira Knightley revealed a funny anecdote about how she was banned from doing her signature pout in Pride and Prejudice. Director Joe Wright was frustrated by the pouts of the Elizabeth Bennet actress. But surprisingly, Knightley still managed to plugin a pout in the movie.
Why was Keira Knightley banned from pouting?
Keira Knightley has made a name for herself after being seen in the iconic Johnny Depp franchise and several period dramas. Among those, Pride and Prejudice despite having some criticisms addressed to it, is one of her most well-known performances yet. But the film centered around the Bennet family has a lot of backstage stories associated with it which came out to the public when the 38-year-old was spotted in The Graham Norton Show.
Speaking to the host, Keira Knightley revealed that she was banned by Joe Wright from pouting in the movie. Addressing her obsession with pouting, the actress explained to the audience that she as well as many audiences were not a fan of her smile which led her to develop the habit of pouting.
“I didn’t like my smile. Lots of people had said I had a crap smile, so any time I had a picture taken I’d go a bit like that. Then suddenly there’d be a film camera. So Joe was like ‘no, you’ve got to stop the pout’”
But Knightley was also cunning enough to include her signature style in the movie. The Love Actually actress revealed that there’s a scene in the movie where we can see her pouting as it was done in the absence of Wright.
“I tried to get it out. There is actually one shot in the film that was done by the second unit director in Pride and Prejudice where the pout is there. Every time [Wright] watches it, he’s still like: ‘You got one pout in there’.”
You can check the fun-filled interview here:
Despite the repeated warnings, Joe Wright gave to Keira Knightley for her pouts, he also requested her to bring back the pout once when they were shooting for her 2011 Channel commercial. The duo continued collaborating in two movies Atonement and Anna Karenina following the 2005 movie.
Keira Knightley was not the first choice for Elizabeth Bennet
It is surprising how the project that kickstarted the collaboration between the director and the actress wasn’t even meant to star Keira Knightley in the first place. It is revealed in several interviews that the Elizabeth Swann fame was not the initial choice for the role.
Keira Knightley spoke on The Graham Norton Show that the director Joe Wright wasn’t willing to take her in the film because she was considered “too pretty” by him.
“Joe Wright didn’t want me for Pride and Prejudice because he thought I was too pretty,” she shared while making a guest appearance on The Graham Norton Show. Then he met me and said, ‘Oh no, you’re fine!'”
According to the director, he was concerned that her beauty would distract the audience from acknowledging the other important qualities of Elizabeth Bennet. The movie, however, was met with positive reviews and collected around $121 million from the box office along with four Academy Award nominations.
Pride and Prejudice can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: The Graham Norton Show
