Keira Knightley recalls being told she 'wanted to be stalked' early in her career: 'It was a brutal time'

Keira Knightley is still reeling from the way she was treated when she rose to fame in the early 2000s.

After a minor role in the Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace, Knightley had her career breakthrough at just 18, starring in a string of hits that included Bend It Like Beckham, Love Actually, and Pirates of the Caribbean. But that success came at a "big cost," she says, as she found herself constantly hounded by paparazzi and scrutinized by the press.

"My jaw dropped at the time," the now 39-year-old actress told the Los Angeles Times in a new interview. "I didn't think it was okay at the time. I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that 'you wanted this.' It was rape speak. You know, 'This is what you deserve.'"

Discussing her struggles during her younger years in the industry, she added, "It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere. They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it — it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye."

Knightley explained that the scrutiny became especially intense because of her roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels and Pride & Prejudice, the Jane Austen adaptation that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

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"It's very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing," she said. "Having said that, I wouldn't have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I'm never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost."

Knightley has long been outspoken about the impact that sudden stardom had on her well-being, admitting that she had a "mental breakdown" in 2007 at age 22. That same year, the actress won a libel case against the Daily Mail after the outlet falsely claimed that she had an eating disorder.

Now, Knightley observes that social media has exacerbated the pains experienced by adolescents by putting fame "in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that's been done to young women, to teenage girls."

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"Ultimately, that's what fame is — it's being publicly shamed," she said. "A lot of teenage girls don't survive that."

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For those reasons, Knightley said she wouldn't want her own kids — the two daughters she shares with musician James Righton — to pursue careers in the public eye, at least not until they're "grown-up."

"Could I, in all good conscience, say to my kid, 'You should do that?' No," she said. "But am I grateful for it? Yes. But then that's life, isn't it?"

She added that, luckily, her kids have yet to express any interest in acting. Their current career aspirations include owning a candy shop and being a bear. "I don't think that's going to work," she joked of the latter.

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