Washington [US], December 6 : Actor Keira Knightley opened up on the negative side of fame and recalled being "stalked by men" in her early 20s, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
She looked back at the early days of her acting career and recalled the scrutiny and body-shaming she faced from being in the public eye.
"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," said Knightley.
"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," she added.
She gained prominence in 2003 at the age of 18 for her roles in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' and 'Love Actually'. However, she grabbed the eyeballs for her performance as Elizabeth Swann in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise and it also "attracted the most unwanted and inappropriate behaviour from others," as per The Hollywood Reporter.
Knightley said that her "jaw dropped at the time" over how people treated her in public spaces. "I didn't think it was OK at the time," she explained. "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.' It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere."
She added, "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."
The actress feels that now things are more challenging for girls especially because of social media.
"Social media has put that in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that's been done to young women, to teenage girls," shared Knightley, adding, "Ultimately, that's what fame is it's being publicly shamed. A lot of teenage girls don't survive that."
Earlier, she recalled her time while making the Pirates films, where she starred opposite Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.
Although she credited the franchise for helping her to establish her name in Hollywood, she also shared that the film's popularity turned out to be "the reason that I was taken down publicly."
"It's a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time," Knightley said of the franchise at the time.
"I was seen as shit because of them, 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. So they're a very confused place in my head," she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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