Keira Knightley Is Actually Great in ‘Begin Again,’ No Matter What Her Director Says

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Begin Again

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Apparently Keira Knightley doesn’t have a fan in her Begin Again director John Carney. While promoting his new film Sing Street, Carney took some shots at his former lead actress, knocking her for her entourage and what he perceived as her closed-off acting style, and saying he’ll never work with a “supermodel” again.

I think the real problem was that Keira wasn’t a singer and wasn’t a guitar player and it’s very hard to make music seem real if it’s not with musicians. And I think the audience struggled a little bit with that in Begin Again. And as much as I tried to make it work I think that she didn’t quite come out as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter.

[…]

Mark Ruffalo is a fantastic actor and Adam Levine is a joy to work with and actually quite unpretentious and not a bit scared of exposing himself on camera and exploring who he is as an individual. I think that that’s what you need as an actor; you need to not be afraid to find out who you really are when the camera’s rolling. Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that. And working with the kids on this film and real instruments there was no hiding going on. It really was a bit of a journey of self-discovery for the actors in Sing Street and that appeals to me.

So it’s not like I hate the Hollywood thing but I like to work with curious, proper film actors as opposed to movie stars. I don’t want to rubbish Keira, but you know it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet and I certainly don’t think she was ready for on that film.

It’s incredibly uncharacteristic for a director to be so publicly critical of one of his stars, particularly with so little distance from the film (Begin Again was released in 2014). Clearly, Carney had a vision of what he wanted from Knightley that he didn’t get, and apparently his experience with her “entourage” was negative enough that he feels the need to trash her in public (with very little provocation!), but what’s craziest about this entire story is that Keira Knightley is actually GREAT in Begin Again.

In the film, Knightley plays an aspiring singer-songwriter who’s recently estranged from her ex (the apparently emotionally unpretentious Adam Levine, if you go by his director) and who teams up with a down and out music producer (Mark Ruffalo) to record an album guerilla-style around New York City. She learns, she grows, some really delightful music is made. And Keira Knightley gives a performance of great nuance and skill. The scene in the kitchen when she realizes Levine is about to dump her is proof enough.

There’s a reticence to Knightley’s performances in Begin Again that comes across as entirely appropriate to the character, and if we’re going to saddle her with the burdens of not being a natural singer or songwriter, that seems like a different complaint altogether than anything to do with her entourage or emotional openness. And within those limitations, look what she can do with a scene like “A Step You Can’t Take Back.”

It seems like Knightley keeps having to prove herself as an actress. Since breaking out in 2003 with the twin smashes Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates of the Caribbean, the legitimacy of her stardom has been in doubt the way subsequent breakthrough ingenues like Jessica Chastain and Alicia Vikander haven’t experienced. Which is crazy when you consider that Knightley has been consistently delivering strong performances since at least Pride & Prejudice in 2005 (for which she was Oscar nominated) and through films like AtonementThe DuchessAnna KareninaLaggies, and Never Let Me Go. How good in how many films does she have to be to shed that rather sexist label of “just a pretty face” (which is essentially what the “supermodel” crack means)?

John Carney has made some delightful films full of music and heart and generosity of spirit. It incredibly disappointing to see that he can’t extend that spirit to the performance of his lead actress.

[You can stream Begin Again on Netflix.]