Keira Knightley Speaks About Experiencing PTSD & Panic Attacks

Keira Knightley is a seriously acclaimed actor with two Oscar nominations to her name, but she's also become known for speaking her mind eloquently and compellingly.

In addition to sharing her views on women's rights, motherhood and portrayals of women, she recently wrote a powerful essay about the gritty reality of childbirth.

Now she's opened up about the sense of isolation she experienced after becoming globally famous as a result of roles in Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

"It was very intense and lonely," she told The Sunday Times. "If there’s a camera at a party, I don’t think that’s a party, so I was never interested in being in that scene. I always wanted to be top of the class, and I always wanted to be perfect, and I always thought that I could just do fame right. I tried being 5lb heavier, but then people say you have cellulite, and then 5lb lighter, and then you’re anorexic and causing people to die. It was just so much. But in a funny way I think I was quite lucky in that it was so insane that I sort of recognised it."

Knightley also spoke in greater detail about the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) she experienced at the time, which she first revealed she had battled in October.

"I had PTSD and panic attacks," she told The Sunday Times. "I literally couldn’t work for a year and I didn’t know whether there would be an end to that. I have a super-solid background and thank f*** for that. My family and my small but very close group of friends just wrapped me up. And I think, without that, it would have been a very different story. I knew I always had somebody there to cuddle me who didn’t want anything from me. Ultimately, I didn’t want them [the media and paparazzi] to win. The only thing I want to do is make films."