Keira Knightley - they don’t accept her apology apparently

I haven't watched that version, but that is really shocking to me! I know she was a teenager, but at 17 she was still basically a child.

I wonder whether she regretted doing that scene or felt coerced into it afterwards?

I would imagine there was a lot of pressure on her to do nude scenes.

I think it shows great strength and intelligence to go on to build such a great career as a young woman while avoiding roles like that.

I don’t know if she has ever spoken publicly about the topic. I’m not sure Bashford knows either. The poorly written article says that Knightley has failed in her trans allyship but then goes on to give examples of ways in which she has previously shown support for the LGB, for example the lesbian themes in Bend it Like Beckham, playing a character in an Alan Turing film, and playing a bisexual woman in a different film… This is seen as Knightley supporting the queer community- Bashford is making the mistake of assuming that anyone who supports the LGB must also support the TQ.

I think you're probably right about that.

But it's still quite brave to be willing to test the water like that.

You're basically trying to find out:

1. Do people still care about whether Keira Knightley is a good trans ally or not, or is this tedious fad on its way out?
2. If people do still care, is Keira Knightley too big to be cancelled?

Mind you, I think if she had said, "Oh, I fully agree with and support JK Rowling and all the wonderful work she's been doing to support women's rights" she would probably be cancelled.

That’s mid twentieth century, so modern! Certainly to someone my age.

But irrelevant, so I’ll leave it now.

I know film stars like KK will be under contract to do a certain amount of interviews to promote whatever new feature they're in, but it annoys me that their agents can't avoid interviewers with an agenda like this one.

Or for bigger name interviewers / media platforms, make an agreement that the star will talk about the production but won't be answering questions like this because they are stupid not relevant.

I seem to remember she got quite naked in Dr Zhivago, when she was only 17. She's only a year older than me and I felt that she was very young to be doing a scene like that. I wasn't sure whether I was in awe of her confidence or uncomfortable with the nudity, or a bit of both.

As far as I'm aware that was her first major role. I wonder whether she regretted doing that scene or felt coerced into it afterwards?

She’s written about it on Muckrack, apparently, and identifies as NB, which may or may not be under the trans umbrella. I’m never quite sure these days.

While it's vaguely plausible that maybe she might not have heard about it, she should sack her agents/publicists etc if absolutely none of them were aware of it, or were aware but didn't bring it to her attention.

Their entire job involves being aware of potential advantages/pitfalls of potential projects, which audience it will be aimed at, any controversies, etc.

It's not like she's lacking in money/options so needs to take on every single thing she's offered. She's a famous actor with a fairly distinctive voice, she could pick and choose any voiceover work she wanted.

They probably had several conversations considering potential backlash, have watched how other celebs dealt with it (and indeed noticed that abject apologies and disavowal doesnt please either 'side' when you carry on taking the money) probably been on sites like this researching public opinion, and then advised her "just pretend you don't know anything about it and make a vague statement about all getting along."

Now they'll monitor socials again for a few days and if general opinion in what they consider to be KK's target audience tanks they'll suggest she issues an apology. If it doesn't no further action.

I think I read an interview with KK years ago where she talked about being quite particular in the roles she took because of how (in my words, not hers) the film industry requires young women to get naked all the time and overly sexualises women.

I'm glad she refused to engage in the TRA game during that interview.

Crikey. Did they say what the journey entailed. To be fair, these days being trans could mean absolutely anything

I really liked her in atonement.

The first celebrity to respond to TRA cancellation like this gets a packet of chocolate buttons in the post.

Well, EB is definitely on record as being transgender and has written about the journey, but I appreciate that may simply mean NB.

it may have been me misinterpreting her pictures - makeup and filter use means that sometimes young women look less natural and it’s easy to question.

I’ve obviously called this one wrong… so clearly was being a bit transphobic in this instance. Will have that comment deleted.

Yes I had a quick skim. She appears to have lots of issues about her body image. It's hard to get past the constant selfies.

seems quite vulnerable. I'm not sure she looks like a bloke though.

I liked her in 'Bend it like Beckham' and am glad she's a sensible woman. Hopefully she won't back down and grovel, just stay sensible.

I agree. I liked her as Elizabeth Bennet as well.

I don’t understand the Keira criticism. We thought she was really good in Atonement and The Duchess Dh and I both cried when she had to give up the baby on the moor so she can’t be that bad an actress!

I started a thread earlier making this exact point.

Also discuss the idea she somehow avoided all discussion over women's rights since 2018. That is absurd as she has previously indicated she has strong political feelings.

No she is making a very British fake apology thing here. Maybe she is a secret Mumsnet poster.

WAVES!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5427553-keira-knightley-laughs-at-the-idea-of-boycotting-jkr?

Is being a trans ally supposed to be the default now and anything less than complete capitulation to the cause a failure?

Yes, obviously.

Is she? The only thing I noticed was that she has the same unfortunate smirk as Priti Patel.

I will admit that I read the headline the other day with was written in clickbatey style suggesting that KK had made a very serious apology for working with JKR, rolled my eyes, though "FFS Keira, not another one" and for the sake of my blood pressure didn't bother to read the actual article.

So it's a lovely relief to read this thread and find that KKs a normal person and actually responded in a wtf, nervous laugh way. Lesson learned, don't always believe the headlines.

I’d never heard of her; a quick look at her website suggests a young woman who has recovered from some sort of serious eating disorder and hasn’t yet learned to do coherent joined up thinking.

Class way to handle it. Hope she stays nonplussed 😉

Been trying to get my head around that too - I thought she was seriously over-rated in pretty much everything I saw her in in her twenties but loved her in Black Dove recently, where she has really come into her own. I think I realise now that she was being cast in pretty/silly girl type roles which just rankle on principle, so it was the script/direction/flavour of the film that niggled. I think she’s only now being able to show her range as she’s being cast in older roles.

Really admire the way she handled this.

So the article says Keira Knightly "is failing in her allyship of trans people."

Has she ever claimed to be a trans ally?

My (admittedly not very thorough) Google search only brought up results about her and trans issues related to her saying she didn't know about the JKR "controversy."

If she's never tried to be a trans ally, how can she have failed at being one?

Is being a trans ally supposed to be the default now and anything less than complete capitulation to the cause a failure?