Growing up in a family of writers and actors, Kiera Knightley couldn’t understand why—at the age of three years old—she didn’t have an agent like her parents.
The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actress finally got her wish three years later, and from the age of six to sixteen landed a number of small television roles.
As a teenager, she dropped out of college to pursue acting. She landed her breakout role in ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, but said she would encourage her daughters to pursue academia more fully if they wanted to one day move into the entertainment industry.
Knightley said she regrets not studying at the likes of the Open University in her twenties, telling The Times: “Particularly for a young girl, I think you need those pieces of paper saying that you’re smart, otherwise people think you’re stupid, particularly looking the way I did.”
That being said, Knightley said she understood that leaving school when she did was necessary for her own career path: “I’m from a family of writers and actors, I absolutely understood that you don’t get the chance more than once.”
Pitfalls of being a young star
Knightley, a mother of two daughters, isn’t the only star of a major franchise who has questioned when—or if at all—they would want their children to pursue a path in the industry.
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, for example, said he wouldn’t want his children to act—particularly at a young age.
He told Newsweek in 2022: “Film sets are wonderful places. I think a lot of the time it can be wonderful for kids. But it’s really the fame side of it that should be avoided at all costs.”
Knightley, reportedly worth $80m, also said she doesn’t take certain jobs anymore in order to enjoy time with her children—aged nine and five.
She explained: “I couldn’t go job to job [abroad] now. It wouldn’t be in any way fair on them, and I wouldn’t want to.
“I’ve chosen to have children, I want to bring them up, so I’ve had to take a major step back.”
Knightley’s decision will be familiar to many women in the industry.
Indeed, Hollywood legend Whoopi Goldberg admitted she put her career over her child because she says she knew her chance would not come knocking again.
“My kid came before my career and I chose my career because I knew this would never happen again,” Goldberg told The View in March. “She didn’t always like it, but that is the process of being a parent. They’re not supposed to like everything you do.”
Make or break franchise
While many actors would kill for a high-profile role in a major franchise spanning multiple films, Knightley added the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘ series was both a blessing and a curse for her career.
The 39-year-old—who won Oscar nominations for her roles in Pride & Prejudice and The Imitation Game—welcomed the opportunity to appear alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom but also highlighted that it put her into a certain category of talent.
“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” Knightley said.
“I was seen as sh*t because of them [the Pirates films], and yet because they did so well, I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for.
“They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly.”
She added such projects are also extremely demanding, with “insane” hours and no control over where or what you’re filming.