Keira Knightley Was ‘Stalked by Men’ Amid ‘Pirates’ Fame and Told It’s ‘What You Deserve’ and ‘You Wanted This’: ‘It Was Rape Speak’ and ‘Gaslighting’

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/keira-knightley-stalked-by-men-pirates-fame-1236236388/

10 comments

  1. > “It’s very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing,” Knightley said. “Having said that, I wouldn’t have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I’m never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost.”

    > Knightley said that her “jaw dropped at time” over how she was treated by the public and “I didn’t think it was ok at the time. I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that ‘you wanted this.’ It was rape speak. You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere.”

    > “They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men,” she continued. “Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it — it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye.”

  4. I actually kind of remember that era. People were so gross and nasty about it, it was creepy. She became the most objectified woman in pop culture for a minute there. It was genuinely scary the things people would say about her, as if she wasn’t even a person.

  5. I get the feeling that a large majority of men on this planet are fucking horrible.

  6. She was only 17 when they started filming; 18 when it was released.

  7. There was a whole Esquire article about her and the writer was absolutely gross the entire time. I was nineteen or twenty and couldn’t really put it into words, but the article as a whole really stuck with me as to how women were talked about

  8. PLEASE do not paint All MEN with the same brush. Not all men are Assholes. Not all at all.

  9. Off the charts creepy…who the f do these freaks think they are…she’s not even a “ pornstar “ … not that sex workers need harassment either frankly

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