Orlando Bloom responds to Keira Knightley’s criticism of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies

Posted On January 29, 2025January 29, 2025

Orlando Bloom has responded to Keira Knightley’s recent comments about the challenges she faced with being taken seriously as an actor after starring in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

In an interview yesterday, Bloom, who played Knightley’s love interest in the series, said that he understood her point of view but explained that he holds a different relationship with the collection of movies. 

“It was such a huge moment in time that is almost like… it feels almost like another lifetime now,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “But it certainly was unique and, you know, I’m always grateful. But I definitely understand where Keira was coming from.” Overall, he concluded, he had “many positive takeaways” from the experience.

Knightley was just 17 when she played the role of Elizabeth Swann, the daughter of a nobleman who falls in love with Bloom’s character, a young blacksmith and the son of a notorious pirate. The first film, 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl, was a resounding success and turned Knightley and Bloom into movie stars overnight. 

In recent years, however, Knightley has revealed that she endured a very rocky relationship with fame which was largely due to being thrust into the limelight with the Pirates franchise. 

In an interview with The Times in November, she described the double-edged sword of being associated with the series. “I was seen as shit because of [the Pirates films], and yet because they did so well, I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for,” she said. They were, she acknowledged, the most successful films she’ll ever be in, but were also the reason she was attacked in the press. “They’re a very confused place in my head,” she concluded.

Although she has worked steadily since leaving the Pirates franchise, Knightley has kept a relatively low profile over the past decade, only recently returning to larger projects. Last year, she starred in the Netflix espionage series Black Doves, which quickly shot to the top of the site’s viewership rankings. She also stars in the upcoming adaptation of the bestselling mystery novel, The Woman in Cabin 10.

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