Keira Knightley, Never Let Me Go!

Okay. Let me begin by saying this. Just because I am female I am not making the subsequent comments as a result of any jealousies toward Keira Knightley being a ‘better looking’ person than myself.
Secondly I wish to point out I make these comments as an academic. I study Cinema and Media at University (the analysis, review, critique etc) of movies and thus have a certain amount of credibility in making these statements.

1. Keira Knightley, regardless of her looks is not by all means an excellent actress. There is no denying that she is attempting to build her skills, find her niche and develop a faultless skill-set. This only comes with age and experience. She is very young, and perhaps in a decade she may become a great actress. Until then her performances are nothing but bland, predictable and similar to all her prior roles. The characters and plots may differ, but each character she plays displays their anger the same way, expresses their joy in the same manner etc. Her movements, her gestures, her gazes are ALL THE SAME. When she suppresses fury, or expressing it for instance, her arms are heavy by her side (slightly pulled back)- her hands contract and release (as though suppressing the feelings) in a similar manner. I’m not saying this is not a good way to indicate anger through body reactions- except I doubt that every ‘character’ (who is, if you are an actor, a person) will express it the same way. This is often a trap for glamourous actresses, who rely too much on their looks to capture the attention of audiences. Their beauty detracts from the quality of performance, or in most cases conceals the lack of talent. Let me give you a contrast. Heath Ledger. In the Dark Knight, his role as The Joker…and Brokeback Mountain. He performs his two roles to such varying degrees it’s indisputable that those characters are two separate people. Their manners, body language, reactions and idiosyncrasies are distinctly different.

2. When Keira is called ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’- what basis are we comparing this? The most beautiful celebrity woman would be more accurate. Everyone knows that actors, singers etc don’t all have to be beautiful (though, in terms of marketability it helps). So it helps when you possess better features than your competition. However these lists only include ‘woman’ worth talking about- and by that, the women of the last year who have been ‘most talked about’. Secondly, have you met all the women in the world? I have met plenty of women who far surpass Keira’s beauty.
Keira’s beauty is also manufactured. By this I mean, in her movies and photos in magazines etc…She is lucky to be styled by a great stylist wearing clothes that most of us have to save up for. Have her make up professionally done. Have lighting to compliment her and hide her flaws. And lastly, we ALL know about photo retouching.
A truly beautiful actress is not afraid to look ugly. It’s just unfortunate that so far all her roles have been that of beautiful women.

3. Whilst Keira is on the path of building a distinguished career, and has been recognised by several nominations for awards- one point still stands. She is yet to receive an award which matters.

Only time will tell if, one day decades in the future whether Keira will receive an Honorary Award for her contribution and talent in the industry. Only then can she be truly called great.

Until then, great or not- her fame is merely dependent on audience’s opinion. And believe it or not, how much the public ‘wants to see you’ actually does influence whether or not you even get considered for a role in Hollywood. Screen testing in amongst the A-lists, are practically just formalities (in fact most don’t bother with screen tests anymore).

Mel.

to Mel:
Fame in Hollywood IS manufactured. Every bankable actress in Hollywood has photoshoots, the are selling an image. Keira is a great actress and a stunning beauty. She’s young, rich, talented and seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Lots of actresses are called ” most beautiful in the world,” most notably Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley and these days Megan Fox. Awards in Hollywood for the most part a joke, they’re are exceptions. Mickey Rourke had a better performance in The Wrestler than Sean Penn in Milk but Sean Penn won. If you think that wasn’t political, think again. Heath Ledger winning posthumously for The Dark Knight is one of those rare exceptions. He should have won for Brokeback Mountain, (another gay themed role like Sean Penn’s performance in Milk ) but no, that movie was too controversial for Academy voters. Amazing performances though, RIP Heath. Anyway everything about Hollywood is image and perception, that’s the point of the business. I disagree with you on Keira Knightley though.

@Tina, LolaSvelt has said it all. You are a megakunt for posting without adding a spoiler warning.

i love keira!!!!!!