14 DAY TRIAL // Though getting the credit she’s due for her acting, Keira Knightley has often been criticized for her temper and the cold way in which she treats the media and interviewers. In the latest issue of Elle UK, she explains that all this comes from being too shy.
She doesn’t mean to come across as an insufferable ice queen, but this is her mechanism for covering up her lack of social skills, the star explains in a lengthy interview with the mag.
As she sees it, she came to too much fame too soon and it eventually deprived her of experiences that would have helped her grow as a person.
In other words, because she doesn’t know how to be around other people, Keira chooses to put on a mask and she’d rather be considered a jerk than have people laugh at her or, perhaps worse, feel sorry for her.
“I had an amazing time (starring in films), it was extraordinary, but the difference was between my age and experience,” the actress says for the magazine.
“I’d experienced a lot, work-wise, but as far as normal progression… I’d never sat in pubs with friends, I’d never been out clubbing. Any of the things you normally do at uni, I’d bypassed. So on one level I was very grown-up and on another level with the whole social thing, I was really far behind,” she adds.
She can still note the effects of that – but her friends are probably the most aware. They’re constantly trying to make her change her ways and be nicer to people but, because she’s also incredibly shy, they’re not enjoying too much success with it.
“Going into a room full of people at a party I find one of the most terrifying things in the entire world. I normally last about 10 minutes. I’m a complete failure,” Knightley says.
“I went to one the other day. Standing in the corner, couldn’t find anything to say, just ran out. Awful. My friends are like, ‘What are you – an idiot? What’s the matter with you?’ I just can’t. I get completely paralyzed with shyness, just totally paralyzed,” the actress insists.
She doesn’t believe there will come a time when she’ll overcome this either, she says. She has a problem: she’s too shy and she’s famous.