Keira Knightley, known for her memorable performances in period dramas with steamy s=x scenes, is calling out the male gaze and the objectification of women’s bodies on-screen.
In a Chanel Connects podcast, Knightley revealed that she has added a no-nudity clause to her contract after becoming a mother.
She explained that she no longer wants to be gawked at by largely male crews as she films s=x scenes designed to cater to their fantasies.
Knightley added that she feels uncomfortable portraying the male gaze and that she would prefer to work with female directors who share her perspective.
“It’s the male gaze. If I was making a story that was about that journey of motherhood and body acceptance, I feel like, I’m sorry, but that would have to be with a female filmmaker,” she said.
“I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men.”
Knightley explained that she is not interested in doing “those horrible s=x scenes where you’re all greased up and everybody is grunting.”
She added that there are times where she thinks that a s=x scene would be good for a film and that she can see where it would fit, but in those cases, she prefers to use a body double.
“Saying that, there’s times where I go, ‘Yeah, I completely see where this s=x would be really good in this film and you basically just need somebody to look hot.’
So, therefore you can use somebody else, because I’m too vain and the body has had two children now and I’d just rather not stand in front of a group of men naked.”
Knightley has been increasingly vocal about her discomfort with the way women’s bodies are portrayed on-screen.
In 2018, she explained that she prefers period films because they present her with rare opportunities to play women who aren’t relegated to a supporting role in a man’s story or subjected to sexual violence.
“I don’t really do films set in the modern day because the female characters nearly always get raped,” she told Variety at the time.
Knightley’s latest film, Misbehavior, directed by Phillipa Lowthorpe, recounts an actual protest staged by the burgeoning women’s liberation movement at the 1970 Miss World pageant in London.
In the film, Knightley played Sally Alexander, an activist who takes a stand against the objectification of women, even as she acknowledged that she herself has profited from that system.
“Most of my money is earned doing modeling and walking the red carpet,” she said. “So, as much as you think you’re on the right side, you’re actually not.
The world is a nuanced and complicated place.”
However, Knightley acknowledges that unlearning the teachings of Hollywood is difficult, especially for someone who got her start so young.
In the same interview, she recalled how her introduction to blockbuster studio movies meant having her boobs contoured and emphasized every morning as a 17-year-old starring in Pirates of the Caribbean.
“They literally painted them on,” she said. “I had to go to makeup, where they’d do my face, and then I’d go to a different place where they were doing all the body paint downs.
The woman who did my boobs every day was the body makeup person for all the big female movie stars in the ‘90s. At the time, I was like Oh, this is just Hollywood.”
Knightley’s next project, Silent Night, is set to be a Christmas comedy written and directed by Camille Griffin, co-starring Matthew Goode and Annabel Wallis.
In the Richard Curtis-directed Love, Actually, Knightley played Juliet, a woman who is relentlessly stalked by her husband’s best friend. Everything is coming full circle for the actress.