Keira Knightley in Seeking A Friend for the End of the World
Keira Knightley is one of the best young British actresses around and she has so far enjoyed a very successful and varied career.
This week sees her back on the big screen in her new movie Seeking A Friend For The End of the World - which sees her tackle comedy/drama.
So we took a look at some of Knightley's finest performances of her career so far.
- Bend It Like Beckham
It was ten years ago that Knightley really caught everyone's attention as she starred in Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham.
The movie saw her take on the role of wannabe footballer Jules Paxton and it was a movie that really did raise her profile.
Bend It Like Beckham was a critical and commercial hit and it wasn't long before Hollywood came calling.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
She stepped into the big budget blockbuster for the first time in 2003 as she starred in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.
She played Elizabeth Swann in the movie and she dashed the image of the damsel in distress to take on a more pirate persona - which not only worked really well but was a breath of fresh air.
The movie was a box office smash and paved the way for Dead Man's Chest and At World's End - the first three movies grossing well over $2 billion at the global box office.
With the role of Elizabeth the British actress really did become the talent to watch out for.
- Pride And Prejudice
She swapped blockbuster for period drama with her next project as she teamed up with British director Joe Wright for the big screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
This was not only a fantastic adaptation that was witty, funny as well as bewitching and heartwarming but Knightley delivered a fantastic performance.
She takes on the central role of Elizabeth Bennet and she plays her with such spirit and intelligence that you can't help but get swept along in her story.
For her great performance Knightley picked up her first Best Actress Oscar nomination - she lost out to Reese Witherspoon.
- The Jacket
In 2005 Knightley teamed up with Adrien Brody for The Jacket, which was directed by John Maybury.
It was a completely different role for the actress as she played troubled coffee shop waitress Jackie.
Jackie was perhaps the darkest role of Knightley's career to date - and she really did nail the American accent.
She had a great chemistry with Brody in a movie that tackled the idea of trying to fight your destiny.
- Atonement
But it was her role of Cecilia Tallis in Atonement that really saw Knightley show what she was all about as this was her first major grown up role.
The movie reunited her with Joe Wright and, once again, they delivered a fantastic adaptation that was both entertaining and visually stunning.
Knightley gives one of the performances of her career in this movie as she delivers a controlled performance as the emotionally repressed Cecilia.
It is part love story, part war epic as Wright has produced a complex and devastating story which combines the literary qualities of the novel with the highly polished acting and production values.
The movie was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars but Knightley missed out on picking up her second nomination.
- The Duchess
She returned to the period drama in 2008 as she played Georgiana the Duchess of Devonshire in a biopic picture about her life.
It seems that Keira Knightley really has found her niche in the corset movie as, like Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, she delivers a stunning central performance as the fragile Georgiana who is so desperate for any shred of love that will come her way.
Knightley portrays Georgiana as a strong woman who deals with and survives all that life throws at her including her husband's affairs which leads to him openly have a mistress (Atwell) living in their home to her doomed affair with Earl Grey.
The Duchess is a very fine British movie that tells the story of a young woman battered and bruised by life but manages to survive despite the heartache and humiliation that she faces on a daily basis and the decisions that she must make that may not always be what she wants.
Seeking A Friend For The End of the World is released 13th July
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw