Keira Knightley recalled the intense paparazzi harassment she endured at the zenith of her fame as a teenager, which included photographers posting up outside her home for days on end and shouting misogynistic profanity at her in hopes of garnering a reaction.
In a recent profile with The Times U.K., the Bend It Like Beckham alumna discussed her rise to stardom, which overlapped with that of many other young female celebrities who faced often sexist and demeaning coverage in tabloids, experiencing mental health episodes or substance abuse issues as a result.
“I remember waking up one day and there were ten men outside my front door — and they didn’t leave for about five years,” she said, adding later, “Oh, I did go mad. Believe me. I went mad. I just managed to hide it.”
When asked what paparazzi would shout in attempts to get her attention, the Black Doves star said, “‘Whore!’ It was mostly ‘whore’. ‘Slut’ sometimes. Particularly if I was with someone — a boyfriend, my brother or my dad. They were trying to get a reaction out of them — provoking people into punching them, so they could sue. And that was the time the crashes started happening — they were forcing people off the roads, then getting even bigger money for pictures of a crashed actress or whatever. And then Britney [Spears] shaved her head so it was like, ‘Great — we can push them into doing something fucking crazy.’”
In a bid to outmaneuver photographers, Knightley said she would shuttle between two apartments; later, however, even that idea was compromised since some rented a flat opposite hers, ensuring she couldn’t use the front of hers without being spotted.
“My dad said, ‘You should be in the CIA,’ because I knew when people were following me. It was a physical feeling,” she recounted. “And then, of course, you start worrying you’re going mad, like, ‘Were they really following me, or was I imagining it?’ So then you’d buy all the papers — and every single time I was right. There would be a photo. Even if I hadn’t actually seen them. Because you’re in a hypervigilant state. A heightened state.”
At a certain point, the actress said she opted for “passive resistance,” wearing identical clothing and not moving in order for the resulting paparazzi shots to be “boring.”
She added, “I gave all my other clothes away. And then, if I was being followed, I stopped walking. I’d literally stand there. Stock still. One day, I stood there for five hours. ‘If you’re still there, I’m not going. I’m not going to move.’”
After that period of time, Knightley briefly stepped away from Hollywood to travel — miraculously, without being spotted. She returned to acting in smaller projects and on the stage.
Currently, she can be seen in Netflix‘s recently released thriller The Woman in Cabin 10 and is now filming the second season to the streamer’s Black Doves.
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