Do you think it's actually even about Thomas directly?

KK: Again, I think that's open to interpretation. But it's not a regular biopic, where you're doing a beginning, middle and end of Thomas' life. A lot of time I have a problem with biopics that try to do too much in an hour and a half. So I thought the really fascinating thing about this was that it was looking at a very specific time, and some very specific people, and really exploring those relationships, and meeting up with those characters, as opposed to just one central character.

Was it nice to do this after coming back from making the Pirates films?

KK: Yeah, it was great, it was really great. It's fantastic to have the opportunity to work abroad, and do all that, but there is a certain point where you're just like, "Oh, I'd love to work at home." I think once you get a certain profile you can help to make films, and we have a tiny industry in this country so I think it's really important for the people that can, to get into it. So it was great to do something that was entirely British-financed, British cast, crew. I thought that these were genuinely fascinating stories; the British emotional mentality is a very interesting one. It's my culture, so obviously it's what I'm interested in. It's great to do films here.



You've been cutting a swathe through various times passed in your films recently; do you have a favourite era, one that you perhaps identify with?

KK: I don't have a favourite era, no. I'm very glad that I haven't lived through the Blitz but I love films from that era and I find it fascinating when you're actually looking at the reality of the era, versus what we think of as the 1940s.

Thinking about young people grabbing onto life with absolutely everything in them, when death is literally falling from the sky, it's fascinating to think, "Well, how do you behave?" You try and live for every single moment, and every single thing and sometimes, you'll make mistakes, but I find that fascinating.

As a time period I like to think about, and as far as relationships and emotions go, I find it a very interesting period.

Do you get sent more period stuff than contemporary stuff?

KK: I do get a lot of contemporary stuff; I just find it's very difficult to find good female roles in contemporary pieces. I don't know why that is. I find more interesting roles for women in period pieces. I do personally like watching period films; I think you can really get lost in the fantasy of them. You're not judging it on a day to day, "I know this," basis. You're in your own role, and I like the fusion that that creates. But really, it's about the characters, and I've found it's just not as good for women in contemporary pieces.



At your height of Pirates it was fairly crazy with paparazzi. Has that all calmed down a bit now?

KK: Yeah it has a bit. I think I'm older and boring! I think it was particularly crazy when I was 18 and they were thinking, "she must fall out of clubs any minute now..." But I didn't, and that's really crappy, I think. It has calmed down, and now I'm doing a lot of very different roles, in a lot of smaller films.

What got you through that period then?

KK: I don't know, to tell you the truth. I just didn't stop working. I mean, I didn't stop working until this year, so I was in the very protective bubble of film sets. So in a funny kind of way, I was never back for long enough to really notice what had happened. Any time I did pop up though, I thought, "Fuck, this is terrifying!"

So now you've got a bit of time off, are you going to travel?

KK: I just want to live life in general, really.

Check out our interview with Knightley's co-star, Sienna Miller, right here.