Keira Knightley is one of this country’s finest actresses who has enjoyed success in huge blockbusters as well as more gritty roles.
She is back on the big screen this week, for the first time since The Duchess in 2008, in London Boulevard with Colin Farrell and Ray Winstone.
And London Boulevard is just one of a string of roles the actress will star in over the coming months as Never Let Me Go and Last Night all waiting release.
She began her acting career at the age of six in the hit television series Ballykissangel in 1993. She appeared in several television projects throughout the nineties including the adaptation of Doctor Zhivago as Lara, which was her biggest role to date.
But it was Gurinder Chadha’s football themed movie Bend It like Beckham that was to be Knightley’s big break. It did surprisingly well in America grossing $32 million.
Her role in the film raised her profile and she landed the part of Elizabeth Swan in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl alongside Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom.
Curse of the Black Pearl was a huge commercial hit which led to Knightley reprising the role of Elizabeth twice in Dead Man’s Chest and At Word’s End, which were met negatively by critics but enjoyed success at the global box office.
Away from Pirates Knightley has played a diverse range roles including The Jacket with Adrien Brody, Arthur with Clive Owen and Toni Scott’s Domino.
Unfortunately they were all met negatively by the critics in particular Domino, which was to be her biggest critical flop.
But 2005 ended on a high for the young actress as she received the best reviews of her career as Jane Austen’s heroine Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Her performance earnt her a Golden Globe and Academy award nomination for Best Actress, losing out on both occasions to Reese Witherspoon.
In 2007 she reunited with her Pride & prejudice filmmaker Joe Wright for the big screen adaptation of Atonement.
With her role as Cecilia Tallis Knightley cemented herself as a strong leading lady leaving behind her Pirates tag and finally silencing her critics.
She followed Atonement, which was a huge critical hit and went onto win a Golden Globe for Best Picture Drama, with The Edge of Love before working on The Duchess.
The movie saw her take on the role of Georgiana Cavendish in a film that was based on Amanda Foreman’s biography of the 18th century English aristocrat.
It was another fine dramatic performance from the actress but it was the last time that we saw her on the big screen.
But she is back in London Boulevard which follows is the story of a man newly released from prison who falls in love with a reclusive young movie star and finds himself in a duel with a vicious gangster.
And there is plenty in the pipeline as she has completed work on Last Night, which sees her team up with Sam Worthington.
In the new year she will also star alongside Carey Mulligan and Andrew Milligan in the big screen adaptation of Never Let Me Go, a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
The movie has already been met well by the critics on the festival circuit and is a possible early contender for Oscar nominations come 2011.
Knightley has already completed work on A Dangerous Method, which is directed by David Cronenberg and stars Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender.
London Boulevard is released 26th November.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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