MOVIE UPDATE: Keira Knightley and "A Dangerous Method" by David Cronenberg: She reveals her spanking scene

 

 

Keira Knigthley in A Dangerous Method.

 

This week, Hollywood Reporter had the opportunity to speak -- quite extensively -- with the actress Keira Knightley.

The 26-year-old was in Toronto to promote David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, in which she portrays Sabine Spielrein, a Russian woman with serious psychological issues who, in the late 1800s, came between the pioneering psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival two weeks ago, its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last week, and is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival throughout this week, and it could conceivably bring Knightley the second Oscar nomination of her career.

As the magazine's Scott Feinberg wrote after seeing Method in Telluride: "I was impressed by the fact that she was willing to be so vulnerable on camera... and I think that she could connect with enough people to score an Oscar nod... that is, if [Sony Pictures Classics] and she are willing to swallow their pride and push her in supporting (which looks wide-open this year) instead of lead (which is absolutely packed)."

Knightley is an interesting case study herself. She knew what she wanted to be doing at a very young age ("I asked for an agent when I was three, apparently"), worked throughout most of her childhood ("It was always, sort of, my escape -- and, sort of, a secret, because I wasn't allowed to talk about it at school"), and became a huge star -- thanks to starring roles in Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and Love Actually (2003), all of which were released within roughly one-year time period -- in the thick of her teenage years, just as she was trying to find her own identity ("18, 19, 20, 21 is quite a tricky time, I think, in anybody's life, whether you're in the public eye or not, so the added thing of being followed around by groups of paparazzi, and being written about, and everything was very strange, particularly when you're, kind of, going, 'I don't know who I am or what I want' ").

When her work first began to earn her accolades -- she became the third youngest woman to ever score a best actress Oscar nod, for Pride & Prejudice (2005) when she was just 20, and two years later starred in a film that scored a best picture Oscar nomination (back when there were only five), Atonement (2007) -- she didn't know what to make of it. "It didn't make me feel validated at all," she told me. "I had very low self-confidence... I always believed the negative stuff and I never believed the positive stuff." Lately, though, she has gotten better about accepting praise and coping with celebrity. And, throughout everything, she has handled herself with nothing but class and grace.

At the moment, there's really no one else like her. She is a huge international star, but has firmly resolved that she will only live and primarily work in England. Unlike many of her American contemporaries, her only appearances in tabloids can be attributed to the nosy speculation of others ("she's awfully skinny, isn't she?"), not any transgression of her own. And she is perhaps the only young actress who can seamlessly traverse between huge popcorn films, like the first three in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (2003, 2006, 2007), Love Actually, and King Arthur (2004), and pure art-house films like Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, and The Duchess (2008), appearing perfectly at home in both.

It was announced this week that her next project will reunite her with Joe Wright, her director on Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, for another ambitious literary adaptation: Anna Karenina, who has previously been played on the big screen by the likes of Greta Garbo (1935) and Vivien Leigh (1948). Knightley told me, "I mean, it's a monumental book, and it's a very hard task. So it's gonna be great."

Over the course of their time together, Feinberg discussed all of the above, and much more. Here are excerpts of the portions that dealt with her performance in A Dangerous Method...

On preparing for the film: "I'd never heard of Sabine before; obviously I'd heard of Freud and Jung, but I didn't really know anything about them -- I vaguely knew it was about sex and that parents get blamed an awful lot, but apart from that I didn't really know anything. So as soon as I knew that I was gonna do it I phoned Christopher [Hampton, the screenwriter of both Atonement and Method] and said, 'Just help, please!'"

The scenes in which her character is hysterical: "I sat in my bathroom for a couple of hours and pulled faces at myself... I wanted it to be distorting; I think it's important that it was shocking... Actually, reading about it, doing research into it, we took it down quite a few notches than what I think it would have been, because a lot of the stuff that you read -- you just think, 'Nobody would believe it!' It's really extreme."

Almost turning down the film because of the spanking scenes: "When I first read the script, I thought, 'The script was fascinating, and it's David, and I really want to work with David, but I read those two scenes and just went, 'I don't think that I can do that,' particularly because it's the age of the Internet; it's gonna be everywhere; I don't want that out there'... I phoned him up to really turn it down... I said to him, 'Look, I love you, I love the script, I love the character, but I really don't know that I can play those scenes'... He said, 'Look, if I'm gonna do them, then they're gonna be clinical; they're not gonna be sexy, they're not gonna be voyeuristic in that way.' And I thought, 'Okay, well I can understand that. As long as it's clinical and it's not some, sort of, weird sexy spanking thing.'"

Executing the spanking scenes: "There was a box which he hit, so he was nowhere near me, thank God! I did actually say to Michael before one of the scenes -- I was like, 'I've got a security guard outside. You touch me and he's gonna break your legs!' And he was like, 'Keira, you're tied to a bed. You're not really in a position to say that.' I said, 'I guess you're right.'... [I did] a couple of shots of vodka -- definitely -- beforehand, and then a couple of glasses of champagne as a celebration of never having to do that again!"

DAVID CRONENBERG'S PROVOCATIVE MOVIES

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY PHOTO GALLERIES

Sex scenes

 

Holly wood actress Keira KnightleyKeira Knightley says that she don't feel any hesitation in doing sex scenes and she never get nervous while doing such scenes. She further said that everyone is respect full there and so there can't be any hesitation.

she said to The Daily Telegraph "It's a consensual thing. You say what you're comfortable with and every body's incredibly respectful," Contact music quoted her as saying. However, the 25-year-old actress was not so comfortable with auditioning as a child because she believed everyone thought she was "s**t"."Some kids did karate, I went to auditions. They were humiliating. You walk in a room and they obviously think you're s**t. So you walk again. I mean the rejection level of anyone who does anything like that. It is quite a savage process."

Keira Knightley has never had a problem getting her kit off for films – but when it came to playing a sex-obsessed seductress, she needed a little Dutch courage.

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Some of the sex scenes in A Dangerous Method were so explicit that 26-year-old Keira initially turned down the role and then had to swig vodka to get through them. And beer. And champagne.
Keira plays a masochistic, erotically charged mental patient who has an affair with her psychoanalyst Dr Carl Jung (played by Michael Fassbender).
At one point, she is tied to a bed, topless and spanked. No wonder, she says she and Michael necked booze to calm their nerves ahead of filming the raunchy scenes.
Londoner Keira admits: “We were both very nervous about those scenes because they’re not nice.
“When we shot them I said to Michael, ‘If you touch me I’m going to kill you.’
“He said, ‘Keira, you’re tied to the bed at the moment. I don’t think you’re in any position to say that.’
“I said, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’

The film's spanking scene

“He’s absolutely wonderful – we had a couple of shots of vodka before doing the scene and a couple of glasses of champagne afterwards. A lot of people say acting is like therapy but I don’t go for that. It is for some people, but not me.
“When you’re playing something so dark you want to have a really nice time afterwards otherwise it’s far too depressing.
“The actual filming work was very focused and very creative, but at the end of the day we watched football – the World Cup was on – and drank beer.”

With Michael Fassbender

In the past, Keira has stripped for Silk, Atonement, Domino and The Edge of Love. But playing Sabina Spielrein in A Dangerous Method – in a performance which is already being talked of as Oscar-worthy material – took her into much darker territory.
She initially baulked at the part and almost backed out of the movie. until she was persuaded to change her mind.
Keira explains: “When I read it I loved the script and really wanted to play the character, but I didn’t want to do those scenes.
“I phoned the director David Cronenberg and said I was going to have to turn it down. He said he really wanted me to play the part so he’d take the scenes out.
“But I said, ‘Whoa!’ because I knew they were incredibly important to the story.
“He said he didn’t want the scenes to be sexy or voyeuristic, he wanted them to be clinical and a complete exploration of what she was feeling. So we kind of came to an agreement with Michael as well – because he had questions about the scenes, too.
“I wanted it to be as shocking as possible without going over the top.”
We are talking in a Toronto hotel the day after Keira swept down the red carpet at the Canadian premiere of A Dangerous Method. Her English rose beauty is set off by her elegant outfit – a chid black dress by Wren with cream and black Chanel shoes. She is also wearing a Chanel necklace which is borrowed and has to be returned.
As the celebrity face of Chanel’s perfume Coco Mademoiselle, she has the loan of the company jewellery.
It is just as well because she has very little of her own after a break-in two years ago.
She says: “Everything was taken and I kind of freaked out. It was horrible so I asked everybody not to give me any jewellery to replace it because it means an awful lot.”
Since finding fame as the lively Jules in Bend It Like Beckham, Keira has established herself as a Hollywood A-lister with the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
She has also shone in smaller projects including Pride and Prejudice, which earned her an Oscar nomination, and Atonement, which brought a Golden Globe nomination.
With her in Canada is her boyfriend of nine months James Righton, the keyboard player with indie band The Klaxons.
It is no secret that she previously dated actor Rupert Friend for five years and before that Irish model Jamie Dornan for two years.
But when it comes to her love life she is not about to give anything else away.
“It’s far too personal,” says Keira. “It’s important to surround yourself with people you love and love you back – that’s the whole point of life. This is a job like any other and you have to make time for friends and family. I keep in touch with them as much as possible.”
When she burst on to the scene, she was an outgoing teenager and West Ham fan who talked openly about her life. But fame has brought with it a certain wariness.
Keira admits: “Yes, I was different then to now – you change with your experiences. It would be sad if you didn’t, but my level of fame is not as big as Brad Pitt’s, thankfully.
“At the time of the Pirates movies I had a crazy time where very simple things were very difficult. I had about 20 guys standing on my doorstep, so going for groceries became incredibly difficult. I just didn’t go out.
“When it gets to that point it’s not safe to go out and it just becomes impossible.
“Since then, I’ve been doing different films and life has become easier. I can now walk through the lobby of a hotel.”
Hollywood continues to beckon, but Keira is happy in the London flat she bought five years ago.
She says: “I haven’t done anything with it yet. I’ve got a couple of bits in it from movies I’ve appeared in, but most of the stuff’s from eBay or antiques markets.
“It’s cheap, not expensive and very eclectic.
“I’ve never been tempted to live in Los Angeles.
“Because I’m on the other side of the world I have more of a European sensibility and I’ve done more European films.
“But I had a great time in LA over the summer when I was doing a film there [Seeking A Friend At The End of the World].
“It was the first time the place made any sense to me – partly because I just accepted that it’s nothing like London. Once you accept that you can see how it can be exciting. I like visiting it but I couldn’t live there.”
Her next film role is another angst-ridden Russian. Playing Anna Karenina will reunite her with director Joe Wright – who guided her in Pride and Prejudice and Atonement – and take Keira into the realm of inner darkness. But she says: “Hopefully Anna is nothing like Sabina.”