Keira Knightley Confesses That Her Early Fame Almost Made Her Lose Her Mind, Paparazzi Made Her Very Alert

Keira Knightley Revels in a Quiet Break After Her Rise to Fame

Keira Knightley says it took her a while after 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean to get used to a meteoric rise to fame—and unbearable paparazzi. “I specifically recall my waking up that day and there were 10 men outside my doorstep—and they stayed there for about five years,” the 40-year-old Woman in the Cabin 10 star shared with The Sunday Times.

Keira Knightley Revealed That She Half-Lost Her Mind Due To Her Early Fame

When the question was put to her whether she was impacted by the paparazzi attack that was the lot of her contemporaries like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, Keira Knightley replied straight away with no hesitation. “Yes, I did lose my mind. Just trust me. I lost my mind. I just kept it to myself,” she said to The Sunday Times.
She revisited the times when the lensmen would throw words at her face—insults such as “whore” and “slut”—”especially if I was with someone—a boyfriend, my brother or my dad.”

Keira Knightley on Paparazzi Tactics and Living in “Hyper‑Vigilance”

“They were not just trying to get a reaction but to provoke people to actually punch them so that they could sue,” Knightley explained. “It was also the same time when the crashes were starting—people were being forced off the roads, and then pictures of a crashed actress were made to get even more money.”
The Black Doves actress reveals that photographers went as far as “renting the apartment opposite mine” to take pictures through the window of her home. The outcome: “You become very alert. A heightened state. You are always conscious that you are being followed.”
After a while, Knightley took matters into her own hands—discovering methods of making it difficult for paparazzi to get a “valuable shot.”

Keira Knightley’s Tactics to Thwart Paparazzi—and Her Break from Fame

Keira Knightley said, “I decided to wear the same outfit every day—three pairs of the same jeans, a stripy T‑shirt, boots. I put away all my clothes.” Not only that, if she was being followed, she would stop her walking completely: “I would just stand there. I remember one time I stood there for five hours. ‘If you’re still here, I’m not going to move.'”
After a while, she decided, “I am done.” Her family was supportive of the decision. While on a break from herself, she went on a tour of Europe—Paris, museums, tourist sites—and was not “once” caught by the paparazzi.

Keira Knightley Wouldn’t Let Paparazzi “Win”

“Museums, trains… no one would think to look for you there,” Knightley recalled. “I was quite shabby, which they also wouldn’t have expected. You simply don’t look people in the eye, go a bit more down and half. I sort of crept.”
The fear of being chased by paparazzi was something “years” it took for that to gradually go away with the slow dying off of the paparazzi frenzy of the early 2000s but giving up was still not among the options. “Never. It was basically my strongest motivation. Being there in my condition and witnessing the drama of the fight in court, I could not just leave the arena and say that the opposition had won. I was extremely, very, very, very driven. As much as I was breaking down, I was not going to be defeated. No, no, no. No.