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In the early to mid-2000s, Keira Knightley ruled the box office and millions of people’s hearts. In 2002, her movie, Bend It Like Beckham, was released, giving her a new identity. She was just 17 years old, but that was the breakthrough film in her career, which further led her to earn versatile roles like in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and more. And her life changed for good; she never looked back.
But did that stardom affect her mentally in some ways that left her feeling exhausted? Well, yes, that was it. Knightley even talked about that exhaustion in many interviews and revealed why she usually takes long, extended breaks that make her transition into work better. She has worked on Broadway shows. But despite having such fame and success, why is she missing from the industry now? Has she taken a complete hiatus from acting? Scroll ahead.
After gaining such huge success, the actress went on to try her hand in theatre and made her Broadway debut with Thérèse Raquin. While Broadway influences culture, it doesn’t create fan buzz. At that time, her stint on Broadway couldn’t reach out nationwide like her previous works. Although she starred in the musical for 75 performances, she never took part in another Broadway production since.
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In conversation with Playbill, Knightley said, “The way of things, because acting isn’t necessarily a job that you can really plan, I just happened to get film and television work, and I didn’t happen to do any theatre. And then, once you’re on that road, you just keep going and keep going and keep going.”
keira knightley as elizabeth swann pic.twitter.com/ylme06kgS0
— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) June 9, 2025
The Love Actually actress even faced stalking during her career peak. It left her quite scared that she couldn’t even step out of her house. The man named Mark Revill was seen outside her house back in the mid-2010s, and after her husband chased him off, he was even arrested. As Knightley reported by The Telegraph, “Since I reported the incident to the police after he meowed through my letter box and had a scuffle with my husband on my doorstep, we are now looking to move house outside the borough.”
The Oscar-nominated actress has gone through a lot of distress in her life. But it was her mental health issues that led her to think of abandoning acting once and for all. Not until 2018, when her fame faded away a bit, that she open up about how difficult it was for her to deal with the pressure. The intensity of the whole was so much that she had to take a two-year break. So, when she came back, her stardom took the momentum, but she was under performance stress.
keira knightley at the premiere of pirates of the caribbean, 2003 pic.twitter.com/RFVF0InuN0
— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) July 4, 2024
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said, “It was still very confusing, because you’re getting all these nominations for all of these things, but press-wise, when I’m going into interviews, people are still saying, ‘Everybody thinks you’re shit,’ or focusing on your looks, or focusing on what’s wrong with you. And, again, I was 19 [actually 20 when nominated] — you can only hear the negative stuff. I felt pretty much like actually I didn’t exist, and I was this weird creature with this weird face that people seemed to respond to in quite an extreme way, and I couldn’t quite figure any of it out. I did have a mental breakdown at 22, so I did take a year off there and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of all of that stuff.”
She had even gone to therapy, which helped her a bit and made her not care about what others think. Keira Knightley was last seen in the 2024 series Black Doves. So, no she hasn’t stopped acting, just has been doing it on her own time.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News
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