Keira Knightley previously opened up about being uninterested in sex scenes helmed by male directors, given that she’s “very uncomfortable now trying to portray the male gaze.” The Pirates of the Caribbean actress is getting even more real now while speaking to Harper’s Bazaar for a July cover feature, in which she doesn’t hold back when asked about experiencing sexual harassment.
In fact, Knightley puts the truth right out there when she says that every woman she knows has experienced sexual harassment in some form, whether that’s extreme catcalling or being flashed or receiving a violent threat or actual assault and battery. The woman who portrayed Anna Karenina on the big screen tells it straight:
“Yes! I mean, everybody has. Literally, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been, in some way, whether it’s being flashed at, or groped, or some guy saying they’re going to slit your throat, or punching you in the face, or whatever it is, everybody has.”
She’s not wrong, and she’s not exaggerating. “It’s f*cking depressing,” Knightley remarks, especially when she notes all the precautions that women must take while walking around in public. Those precautions are a matter of routine, even, and she mentions how a British politician, Baroness Jones recently suggested a curfew for men in the wake of a young woman’s disappearance, which resulted in some very angry remarks from male politicians, including Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage, who described the proposal as “deranged.” Yet that actually appeared to be the point, with Jones highlighting how absurd it feels for women to always be on the defense. “There’s a curfew for women and there always has been,” Knightley pointed out to Harper’s Bazaar. Truth.
(Via Harper’s Bazaar)