You're all hype.. you can't act

WHEN Keira Knightley met a movie boss hoping for a role in his new film she got the biggest shock of her young but glittering career. Before 19-year-old Keira had read a line from the script, blunt-spoken film director John Maybury told her: "There's been a lot of hype about you, but I don't think you can act."

He went on tell the beautiful star of blockbuster hits like Pirates Of The Caribbean and Love Actually: "You're completely wrong for this part... I absolutely don't want you."

Some young actresses would have burst into tears. Some Hollywood brats would have called their lawyer and threatened to sue. But Keira is made of sterner stuff. She told him: "Well, will you at least let me read?" Maybury listened in silence as she performed her lines. And then, says Keira: "He went, 'OK, here's my home phone number and here's my mobile number and I'll see you in about a month."

Against all odds, her perseverance had paid off.

The result was a starring role in The Jacket, a psychological thriller in which she plays a burned-out "Goth" waitress who has an affair with a Vietnam veteran played by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody.

Keira says: "She's a character the like of which I've never played before. She's a down-and-out, if you like. Self-destructive and verging on being an alcoholic. I wanted to do it as soon as I read the script and I knew the producers wanted me. But it was John I had to convince."

Looking back, did his comments upset her? "I think it was fair enough," she says with no bitterness. "I haven't completely proved myself as an actress. If you do big-budget films like the King Arthurs and Pirates they want perfection. You are living a dream. The make-up is always perfect, the hair is always perfect. In a way you are a totally unreal being. Don't get me wrong, I love going to the cinema and watching this fairytale world. But I think to actually prove yourself as an actress, you have to touch on reality - and sometimes that's a harsh reality."

The Jacket was new territory for Keira, who cut her teeth on bodice-rippers and light comedies.

Her Hollywood break came at just 13 as Sabe, Decoy Queen to Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Then she played a posh schoolgirl in The Hole in 2001- but it was her role of tomboy footballer Jules Paxton in Bend It Like Beckham (2002) that made her name.

"The Jacket was an incredible, incredible experience for me," she says. "I was trying to work what I could take from my own experiences. As far as the depths of despair that my character is in, I think that when anybody tells you that they haven't been to those dark places, they're a liar. I think we all know what it's like.

"And so it was a fascinating process of actually confronting depression and loneliness instead of running away from it.

"In any case, I always think imperfection is much more interesting than the perfect. I mean, everyone wants to be perfect - but it's boring. It's not real.

"What I love when I go to the cinema is watching characters who are deeply flawed."

Filming was not always easy. Much of the film was shot in a disused mental hospital in Scotland.

"Obviously there's a moment when you walk on to a set and you just go, 'Oh, I'm going to die. I can't do this. Why am I here?' But you can't let nerves get in your way. The whole job of being an actress is to turn nerves into something more positive, into a performance. You can't get intimidated on a film set, because you're there to do a job." She pauses and adds: "But I screw it up all the time... because I'm human all the time."

She did find an unexpected bonus, though. There were no make-up artists and hairdressers fussing around to make sure everything was in place. "You look s*** all the time and it's great," she laughs.

Keira worked intensely for six weeks with a dialogue coach perfecting her character's American accent.

"She comes from Vermont and first of all I tried to lay it on top of my own English voice and that just doesn't work.

"And then the director wanted me to have a much lower, kind of huskier voice. So I worked to lower my tone and be a lot more breathy. That was the hardest thing of all. Listening to music helped. I listened to a lot of Courtney Love and tapes of interviews she did. Bits of Michelle Pfeiffer as well."

Film business cynics have said the one reason Keira took the role was to give her more clout in Hollywood. "I suppose there's an element of truth in that" she says.

"If you can do an American accent as a Brit, then the likelihood is that at least more work will be open to you.

"But what you want as an actress is change. I don't want to play the same character for my entire career. That would be supremely boring and in Hollywood you do get typecast very easily. I want to avoid being the plucky British broad for the rest of my life if possible."

The Jacket - due for release here next month - includes Keira's first nude love scene - opposite Adrien Brody. To calm her nerves beforehand, he brought vodka and brandy to her caravan and took the edge off her wobbles!

Keira is already contracted to star in Part 3 of Pirates Of The Caribbean (Part 2 is out next year), but after that she's waiting to see what comes up. "I haven't sorted out anything after that. I'm not going to be the same person in a year's time and it's an incredibly personal thing, choosing a film."

There is one constant in her life - her boyfriend, Irish model Jamie Doran, 21. "We're really happy," she says. "He's great, really sweet and sexy. I'm mad about him. He keeps me sane when things get stressful and we always have fun."

But as with her career, she's not thinking too far ahead. "Marriage and kids are not on my mind at the moment," she insists.

"After all I'm only 19... I just seem older."

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