‘I Was Neurotic’: Keira Knightley Opens Up On Dealing With Public Criticism

Keira Knightley learnt a long time ago that having one of the most famous faces on film means she becomes an easy target for public criticism but the actress admits that she used be “neurotic” when obsessing over what people used to say about her although she’s now able to deal with it, simply by not Googling herself.

The Pirates of the Caribbean was once subjected to nasty comments about her slim figure and, like most other women, Keira took the endless criticism personally especially when also trying to cope with the fame that came with her successful career. Opening up in a candid interview with The Mirror, Keira explained: “Everything up to 25 I was pretty neurotic and taking everything far too seriously.

“I found it difficult to step back from it and I was taking it very personally. Partly because as an actor you don’t want necessarily that thicker skin, and I couldn’t figure how to be open emotionally and yet get a thick enough skin so that things didn’t hurt.”

Now, speaking confidently at the age of 29 and as a married woman – she tied the knot with longtime beau James Righton last year – Keira says she can easily brush off the negativity by making the effort to avoid social media. “I don’t know if it was a chemical thing, a certain kind of realisation that it really didn’t matter – and a sudden realisation of what you have control of and you don’t,” Keira explained.

Keira Knightley admits she struggled to deal with criticism in her early twenties (Dominic Chan/WENN)

“You suddenly have a moment where you go, actually I can’t do anything about that. I don’t Google myself – that was the problem before 25. Not that I did it all the time, but I certainly saw enough to say, ‘Oh you shouldn’t look’. I mean, you don’t need to look, it is not helpful.”

She added: “You have to be quite vigilant about it. Again I think this is probably the same if you are on social media and if you do put anything out in the public, you are opening yourself up now to a lot of criticism and a lot of people telling you they hate you.”