I loved making new movies but I preferred pirate ship over luxury yacht says Keira Knightley as she tells all about film
WHEN Keira Knightley wanted tips on playing an amateur sleuth in her latest movie, she turned to reality TV hit The Traitors.
In The Woman In Cabin 10, the actress plays a journalist who turns detective after seeing a passenger being tossed overboard from a luxury yacht — but no one believes her.
As the crew insists everyone is accounted for, Keira’s character Lo Blacklock bids to uncover the truth.
To nail her role in the tense thriller, the star studied the mind games played by contestants in BBC One show The Traitors, which is currently airing its celebrity version hosted by Claudia Winkleman.
Keira, 40, explains: “I would think of watching The Traitors. I had that in my head a lot when I was doing this. You go, ‘I am innocent’, and the more you say you’re innocent, the more somebody goes, ‘I think you’re lying’. And that’s what this is.
“The more she says, ‘I saw somebody go off the boat’, everybody goes, ‘You are insane’.”
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Keira’s game plan clearly worked as the film is number one on Netflix for a second week, with 30million views. And the actress says she enjoyed playing Lo because she loves a good whodunnit.
However, she admits it annoys her musician husband James Righton when she tries to solve TV murder mysteries.
She says with a laugh: “I like to guess who did it — I like to guess what the twists are, I like to feel the tension.
“If I see it coming, my husband gets so angry. I so want to tell him what I think is going to happen. I have to write it on a piece of paper and hide it so that at the end, I can go, ‘I knew!’ I’ve always loved a thriller. It’s my happy place.”
The movie, based on Ruth Ware’s bestselling novel, follows Lo as she boards a billionaire’s private yacht for a posh Press trip — where she witnesses what she believes is a woman being thrown overboard.
But when the crew denies anything is amiss, she finds herself questioning her sanity.
The tense drama also stars Ted Lasso favourite Hannah Waddingham and LA Confidential actor Guy Pearce.
But surprisingly, Keira says shooting scenes on the luxury vessel was anything but glamorous.
She says: “We were in the English Channel. It was cold — unsurprisingly for the Channel, really.
“And we had the 25 crew and then we had 70 film crew and then we had 20 actors and we weren’t allowed to touch anything.
“We weren’t allowed to sit on anything and we weren’t allowed to walk on the carpet. We weren’t allowed to eat or drink anything, apart from in tiny little designated areas.
“It wasn’t quite your image of what being on a luxury super-yacht might be. I was dreaming about studios. Three weeks on the yacht, I was just like, ‘I cannot wait!’.”
I like to guess who did it — I like to guess what the twists are, I like to feel the tension
Keira Knightley
Keira claims it was actually easier working on a pirate ship opposite Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean as the super-yacht was so posh, everyone was terrified of breaking something.
She says: “The pirate ship is easier because you can break the pirate ship. Nobody is telling you not to sit or lean or walk or stand.
“Whereas this, it’s like, ‘OK, run because somebody’s trying to kill you — but don’t touch the walls’.
“It was a particular challenge not breaking anything and knowing that, if you did break something, you’d get a bill for, like, £200,000.”
Thankfully nobody caused any damage. Keira adds: “No, because we were all terrified. We were very well behaved.”
In one dramatic scene, Lo leaps overboard and swims to shore.
But Keira admits it wasn’t quite as daring as it looks on screen. In fact, she was filming “in a tank” and it was her stunt double, Jess, who plunged into the cold water.
Keira also tells how having a warm and funny co-star like Hannah made the long days on board much easier.
She says: “Hannah is amazing. She’s, like, full wattage.
“I’d been a fan of hers from Ted Lasso and, as a person, she’s very funny. She’s very quick, very sparky.
‘I’m pretty scruffy’
“So, just sort of hanging out with her, she’s like that. And she’s the same in a scene. She just throws things at you. She has fun with it.”
Keira says the whole cast got along brilliantly, which helped as it was a dark plot.
She adds: “The story is tense. I think if we’d had difficult people, that may have made me jump overboard. Fortunately, they were all lovely. I think part of the joy of making something that’s so tense and twisted and strange is when you’re working with lovely people, you can have a bit of a giggle.”
Keira shot to fame at 17 in the 2002 comedy Bend It Like Beckham, playing football-mad tomboy Jules.
Just a year later, she starred as swashbuckling heroine Elizabeth Swann in Pirates Of The Caribbean and, by the time she was 20, had been nominated for an Oscar for Pride And Prejudice.
She went on to front a string of major movies including Atonement, Love Actually and The Imitation Game.
Yet Keira says that off the red carpet, she is so scruffy she is rarely noticed in London with James, 42, and daughters, Edie, ten and six-year-old Delilah.
She explains: “Mostly, people don’t recognise me. I’m normally a pretty scruffy person that can dodge and weave. I can kind of disappear in a crowd. So I don’t really have that many fan experiences.”
The pirate ship is easier because you can break the pirate ship. Whereas this, is like, ‘Okay, run because somebody’s trying to kill you — but don’t touch the walls’
Keira Knightley
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Pride And Prejudice, featuring the iconic final scene where Mr Darcy, played by Matthew Macfadyen, walks through the mist to Elizabeth.
But Keira reveals her co-star couldn’t actually see her — because he did not have his specs on.
She recalls: “I was holding a massive pink X above my head so that he could walk towards the pink X.”
These days, Keira prefers a gritty film plot to a romance. She says: “I think this is the part of my career where I’m looking for stuff that is fun. And I really do love a thriller.
“They’re exciting, gripping, there’s a dark heart to it. I do want to do more of these. I love being the hero.”
