Keira Knightley recently reunited with her Pride & Prejudice co-star Rosamund Pike to mark the film’s 20th anniversary in a feature with Vanity Fair. Reflecting on that chapter of her early career, Knightley opened up about how complex and emotionally confusing that period was for her as a young actor navigating fame, criticism, and unexpected acclaim, all at the same time.

Though Pirates of the Caribbean had already made her a household name, Knightley said the industry didn’t exactly welcome her with open arms.

“Pirates of the Caribbean had already come out, but I think in the public consciousness, I was seen as a terrible actress,” she admitted. 

“But I had this phenomenally big success with Pirates. And I think [Pride & Prejudice] was the first one that was a phenomenally big success but was also critically acclaimed. So I remember it coming out maybe the same year, maybe around the same time as Pirates 2. 

And I got the worst reviews ever for that, and then also being nominated for an Oscar at the same time — it was, in my 21-year-old head, quite confusing.”

Knightley was only 20 years old when she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice, becoming the third-youngest nominee in that category at the time. 

While the nomination was a major milestone, it came amid a wave of negative press that had already shaped how she viewed her work, even in earlier breakout films.

Speaking about the reviews for Bend It Like Beckham, she recalled, “I got terrible reviews for it — or at least the ones I remember, or the ones that, in your 17-year-old brain, actually sink in. Of course, it’s only the ones that are negative. So I think it was the first time that it had been unequivocally positive, right?”

Looking back, Knightley shared in a past interview with The Times of London that the success of the Pirates franchise was both a blessing and a burden. 

“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time,” she said. “I was seen as shit 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,” she said. 

“They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”