Keira Knightley Explains Why She Was Confused by Her 2006 Oscar Nod for Delight & Prejudice

Keira Knightley is recounting a “complicated” time when she was honored with an Oscar nomination for one movie, and critiqued as a “horrible actress” for one more.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, printed Thursday, June 12, Knightley, 40, recalled receiving an Oscar nomination in 2006 for her efficiency as Delight & Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet. Nonetheless, on the similar time, she was being criticized for her efficiency in Pirates of the Caribbean: Useless Man’s Chest.

“Sure, it was fairly large for my profession. If individuals will come as much as me, it’ll be about that one,” she informed the outlet of portraying the Jane Austen-penned heroine, including, “Pirates of the Caribbean had already come out, however I feel within the public consciousness, I used to be seen as a horrible actress.”

Amid critiques of her efficiency within the second Pirates franchise, Knightley recalled a sudden swap in public opinion on her appearing talents. “However I had this phenomenally large success with Pirates. And I feel this was the primary one which was a phenomenally large success, however was additionally critically acclaimed.”

The actress continued, “So I bear in mind it popping out possibly the identical yr, possibly across the similar time as Pirates 2. And I obtained the worst critiques ever for that, after which additionally being nominated for an Oscar on the similar time—it was, in my 21-year-old head, fairly complicated.”

Knightley was solely 20 when she acquired her Finest Actress Academy Award nomination, which made her the third youngest nominee ever on the time, per Variety.

When Pike talked about one other considered one of Knightley’s early tasks, 2002’s Bend it Like Beckham, the actress mentioned, “I obtained horrible critiques for it—or at the very least those I bear in mind, or those that, in your 17-year-old mind, really sink in. In fact, it’s solely those which can be unfavorable. So I feel it was the primary time that it had been unequivocally optimistic, proper?”

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Delight & Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, was re-released in theaters in honor of the movie’s twentieth anniversary in April. The movie’s sweeping cinematography of the bucolic English countryside and the romantic chemistry between Knightley and Matthew McFadyen‘s Mr. Darcy proceed to earn the movie adaptation of the 1813 novel of the identical identify a long-lasting legacy.

 “I simply bear in mind being a part of one thing that felt magical,” Pike recalled of the movie.