Keira Knightley Says She Only Watches Her Films Once

Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean

We all have favorite actors that we love to see in movies. We'll watch our favorite performances and favorite stories again and again. However, not every actor who makes those movies is quite as excited to watch them as the rest of us. Keira Knightley recently admitted that she doesn't like to watch herself on screen and will usually only watch her films once. According to Knightley...

No, yeah. I dunno, it’s just weird. It’s like hearing your own voice. I dunno and I only see the bad bits. So, I’m like, ‘Oh, why did I do that?’

As somebody who regularly has to transcribe interviews I have done, I know exactly how strange, and largely off-putting, hearing your own voice can be. It seems that for Keira Knightley, the experience is only amplified. She not only has to hear her own voice, but see herself on screen and watch all the decisions that she made, including the ones she wishes she could do over.

Knightley says she only watches her movies once "if that." I would assume that question comes down to whether or not she attends the premiere of her movies. If she makes it, that's probably the only time she ever sees the film in question. If she doesn't for whatever reason, then she probably never bothers to go back and see the final product.

Knightley is far from the only person who avoids watching her own work. Many in Hollywood have talked about how they rarely if ever watch themselves. Putting yourself up on the screen like that makes an actor quite vulnerable. However, it probably doesn't necessity feel that way when you're shooting the movie. As long as you never go back and watch the movie, you don't realize how much of yourself you're putting out there. Honestly, it's far better than if she loved her own movies so much that she watched them a lot. If that happened, we'd have to worry.

Check out Keira Knightley's full comments on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the clip below.

Of course, one has to wonder if Keira Knightley might start watching more of her movies again over the next several years. She has a three and a half year old daughter, as she told Jimmy Fallon, and one has to assume that as that girl gets older and begins to understand just what it is her mother does, the kid is going to want to watch those films. As she becomes old enough to see them, Knightley might find her movies on in her house whether she likes it or not. Whether or not she likes that. Perhaps by then she'll be more comfortable with them.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.