Keira Knightley sees nothing wrong with doing on-screen nudity — so long as there are limitations.
“I’m quite rigorous about what gets exposed,” the English actress said in Allure‘s December issue, on the cover of which she posed topless with only a Chanel sequin tulle jacket slung over shoulders. “No bottom half! I don’t mind exposing my t*ts because they’re so small — people really aren’t that interested!”
But Knightley, 27 — who first shot to fame in such films as Bend It Like Beckham and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies — said she learned to draw that line. “I think it’s much easier as you get older,” she explained. “You can say, ‘No.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘No.’”
About five years ago, however, Knightley’s body was the subject of controversy. Critics blasted her for her pin-thin physique, as the media speculated that she was struggling with an eating disorder.
“I knew I wasn’t anorexic,” the star of the upcoming Anna Karenina said. “But maybe my body is somehow not right. Or my face is not right. Or the way I speak is not right. When you’re going through a period where you’re really getting a lot of criticism, you go, ‘Maybe all this is right!’ You just kind of want to hide it all.”
Perhaps such scrutiny has led Knightley to keep her private life private — especially regarding her fiancé James Righton, keyboardist for the Klaxons. Knightley said she fears the prying publicity that will fall on her when she finally decides to ti the knot. “Maybe I’ll be permanently engaged!” she said.
Despite the hardships of the spotlight, Knightley said she wouldn’t abandon acting. “There’s clearly something in me that goes, ‘No, actually, I know I’ve got something,’” she explained. And she said she is humbled by her good fortune in Hollywood. “The people I’ve worked with! Having a successful career! It’s absolutely, totally extraordinary, and I’m incredibly lucky.”
