Keira Knightley throws her weight around
Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley would appreciate it if other people would stop watching her weight.
In a new interview with British Elle, the 22-year-old actress said she was "completely devastated" by the anorexia rumors sparked by the publication of photos in which she appeared especially skinny.
"It appeared as if I were promoting something when I absolutely was not. I am thin because that's what I am, and I was thinner at that point because of the work I do. Nothing else," she said.
The shots in question were published by Britain's Daily Mail in January under the headline, "If Pictures Like This One of Keira Carried a Health Warning, My Darling Daughter Might Have Lived," with an accompanying article by a mother whose teenage daughter died of anorexia.
Knightley, who has repeatedly denied having an eating disorder, was sufficiently steamed by the insinuation to sue the paper for implying she was trying to mislead the public.
"Yes, I looked very thin in those photos, but they were taken immediately after filming Pirates of the Caribbean and I had lost weight," she said.
"I do a lot of action films but none of them are more physically grueling than Pirates, where we are filming in searing temperatures and shooting fight scenes in which you are wearing a wetsuit underneath a load of corsets. You are fighting with heavy weights in the water. Can you imagine a more advanced cardio workout than that done hour after hour?"
Even so, the actress said the rumors bothered her enough that she sought out a doctor's advice on how to gain weight.
"He told me that for someone of my body type to get to a [European] size 12, I would have to eat a lot of s--t food, stop exercising and drink loads," she said.
"Basically, my body type is naturally thin. There is nothing I can do about it."
If she could change her figure, Knightley said she would perhaps add a few curves, and maybe elongate her legs, but it's not something she dwells on.
"What I have does its job. Ironically, I'm learning to become more happy with myself as a result of all this," she said.
Though Knightley is not yet ready to settle down and start a family, she said that when the time comes, she's likely to drop out of the spotlight altogether.
"The celebrity thing is completely crazy," she said, citing the paparazzi that constantly lurk outside her London home. "I think I just have to move away or give it up altogether. I couldn't have kids in the situation I'm in now.
"I'm just not so hungry any more. I made a decision very recently that I want a life instead."
In addition to At World's End, opening May 25, Knightley has two other films coming out this year: Atonement, the big-screen adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel by the same name, and Silk, the story of a 19th-century French silkworm smuggler.
Next up, she stars in The Best Time of Our Lives, a film based on the romantic entanglements of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, penned by her mother, Sharman MacDonald.
Lindsay Lohan was originally set to costar in the project, but dropped out
