Doing justice to everything and everyone and juggling the role of mother and job is also a challenge for Hollywood stars like Keira Knightley (37). In an interview with the British “Harper’s Bazaar”, whose April cover she adorns, she speaks the actress about putting too much pressure on herself for a long time and how “exhausted” she was in the early years of her career.
At the age of only 18, the Brit landed one of the leading roles in the successful film series “Pirates of the Caribbean” – Knightley’s big break. But despite the success, the actress felt “very limited” and “very stuck” as many had labeled her as “the object of everyone’s desire” through the role. In her subsequent roles, she therefore decided to show other facets and “break out”.
However, she was “incredibly hard” on herself. “I was never good enough. I was absolutely single-minded. I was so ambitious. I was so driven. I was always trying to keep getting better, which is a tiring way of living your life,” she recalls. Today she is “in awe” of her 22-year-old self, “because I would like to have a little more of her back”. It was only today that she realized how extraordinary she was back then.
The birth of her two children Edie (7) and Delilah (3) turned her life upside down again. Reconciling the role of mother and career was a “huge thing”, because her husband James Righton (39), to whom she has been married since 2013, also wanted to continue working on his music projects at the time. It wasn’t possible without additional help.
“During filming, the hours are unpredictable and extreme. I’ve found that it takes three people to do what a full-time parent does. When you hear someone say, ‘I’m just staying at home with the kids’, it’s not ‘just’,” Knightley said. Her children are “super active” and looking after them is “hard work”. In the meantime, however, the couple can do without childcare. Their jobs don’t seem to be suffering as a result.
Most recently, Keira Knightley was in front of the camera for the film “Boston Strangler”. In the historical crime drama based on true events, she plays the lead role of Loretta McLaughlin, a reporter who uncovered the story of serial killer Albert DeSalvo (1931-1973), aka the Boston Strangler. The film will be available on the Disney streaming service from March 17th.
