Orlando Bloom has responded to British actress Keira Knightley’s criticism of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise after she shared that she had to spend years in therapy after the movies became popular.
The two featured in the movies alongside the franchise lead actor Johnny Depp, with Knightley playing the governor’s daughter Elizabeth Swann who eventually becomes a leader among the pirates.
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Knightley explained her experience
The 39-year-old actress shared her experience with the movies, telling The Times that she felt she was “taken down so publicly.”
She said, “It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time.”
The actress felt she was shamed
“I was seen as s**t because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for [Pride & Prejudice and The Imitation Game],” the Oscar-nominated actor shared.
She found it hard to navigate
While the movies were successful and brought Knightley to the spotlight, they were also the cause of much backlash that she received.
“They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly,” she said.
Knightley has mixed feelings
“So, they’re in a very confused place in my head,” Knightley added, speaking about the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series.
The actress found it hard to navigate her feelings about the franchise as it both brought her to fame and caused her to be taken down.
Bloom also looked back on the movies
Knightley’s co-star Orlando Bloom, recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the movies, saying that “it feels almost like another lifetime now”.
Bloom played the character Will Turner who was a blacksmith-turned-pirate and a love interest for Elizabeth, played by Knightley.
Bloom has positive feelings about the movies
“I definitely understand where Keira was coming from, and she does wonderful things,” the actor told the news outlet, before adding “I have a lot of positive takeaways.”
While Bloom doesn’t share Knightley’s feelings regarding the movies, he understands how she feels.
Knightley was only seventeen
In the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Knightley is only 17 years old, and has previously opened up about how she struggled with fame at such a young age.
“The fame that came with them I just couldn’t handle,” Knightley told The Telegraph in 2019.
She wouldn’t change anything
“So looking back, would I do anything different? No, I wouldn’t because I’m unbelievably lucky now, and my career is in a place where I really enjoy it, and I have a level of fame that’s much less intense,” she added.
Knightley shared she felt held back
The actress spoke about her character Elizabeth Swann, telling Harper’s Bazaar in 2023 about Elizabeth, “she was the object of everybody’s lust.”
“Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fight in her. But it was interesting coming from being really tomboyish to getting projected as quite the opposite,” she added.
She chose the next roles with care
“I felt very constrained. I felt very stuck,” Knightley added. She had to spend years in therapy before being able to break out of that mental space, and her choices for roles afterwards were purposeful.
“So the roles afterwards were about trying to break out of that. I didn’t have a sense of how to articulate it. It very much felt like I was caged in a thing I didn’t understand,” she said.
