I think we all have some idea of how terrible it would be to be followed around by photographers all day everyday. I mean, can you imagine if there was a camera in your face every time you did that quick makeup-free run to the shops? Or every time you ungracefully stepped out of the car? Or every time your non-pregnant self went out for a meal and they snapped your “growing baby bump”? It would suck, right?
But I’m not sure we truly understand the terror of it all.
This week, Hollywood star Keira Knightly appeared on the new podcast by luxury fashion brand Chanel (called Chanel Connects) recalling some of her encounters with paparazzi – and yes, they were terrifying.
Advertisement
Speaking with filmmaker Lulu Wang and editor Diane Solway, the Love Actually star explained how dealing with paparazzi has been one of her biggest challenges, not only being verbally abused by them but also having her life put in danger by their actions.
“It is brutal for young women within this industry,” she says.
“Being followed around 24/7 by packs of up to 30 men with their lenses, through my windows and being called a whore every time I left the house in order to invoke a reaction because the pictures were worth more if I was crying,” she continues.
Advertisement
“Or being forced off the road, because they suddenly found that, there was a lot of money to be made out of car crashes. So you’d have guys with cameras trying to force your car off the road.”
Keira was in her late teens and early 20s when her career was taking off with films like Bend It Like Beckham and Pride & Prejudice. Looking back on those days, she says she’s “incredibly proud” to have survived them.
“It was brutal. And trying to figure out a way when, as we’re all experiencing now, the world goes insane around you, how do you keep your sanity? How do you keep your view of who you are, of what you want and what you believe is right and wrong, on the straight and narrow? It is incredibly difficult.”
You can listen to more of what she had to say on the Chanel Connects podcast, available now on Spotify, Apple and Chanel.com.
(Feature Image Credit: Bakounine/Shutterstock.com)