Director John Carney has criticised actress Keira Knightley’s work in 2013 film Begin Again. He says he wouldn’t like to work with her again.
“I’ll never make a film with supermodels again,” Carney told Independent newspaper.
Knightley played a songwriter dumped by her musician boyfriend, played by Adam Levine, in Begin Again. She then embarks on a new path in making music with Mark Ruffalo’s character.
Carney had much more favourable memories of working with Levine and Ruffalo than with Knightley.
“Mark Ruffalo is a fantastic actor and Adam Levine is a joy to work with and actually quite unpretentious and not a bit scared of exposing himself on camera and exploring who he is as an individual,” Carney said.
“I think that that’s what you need as an actor; you need to not be afraid to find out who you really are when the camera’s rolling. Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that,” he added.
Carney also claimed that Knightley’s “entourage” made it difficult to “get any real work done”, and stated a difference between working with “proper film actors” and “movie stars”.
“It’s not like I hate the Hollywood thing, but I like to work with curious, proper film actors as opposed to movie stars.
“I don’t want to rubbish Keira, but you know it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet and I certainly don’t think she was ready for on that film,” he said.
