Keira Knightley had to go through years of therapy to get over trauma after starring in Pirates of the Caribbean

Some films can really take it out of their leading stars, both emotionally and physically. And Keira Knightley is no exception to being traumatised by films she’s worked on.

Namely, her breakout role.

The 39-year-old has been in many productions that are memorable, such as Bent It Like Beckham, Love Actually and of course, the Pirates of the Caribbean.

It was that last film that ended up causing her to go to therapy for years.

Having starred alongside major actors such as Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom at the age of 17, Knightley was in with the big league every early on in her career.

Despite it being her big break and every young actor's dream, apparently it wasn’t a great time for Knightley.

That’s because portraying Elizabeth Swann in the first 2003 film of the franchise meant that she was suddenly an overnight sensation and that put a lot of pressure on the then-teenager.

Two decades after the first film premiered, she went on to gone on to call it a ‘traumatic’ time that was ‘very hard’ to cope with.

Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. (Walt Disney Pictures)

Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar UK last year, Knightley spoke about how her character was portrayed, which was a lot different than her real personality.

She told the mag: “She was the object of everybody’s lust.”

The actress had to take a break from acting following it, and described how uncomfortable she was with people’s expectation of women.

She was also uneasy with how she was thrust into adult life so quickly.

Knightley told the Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast that she felt ‘worthless’ at the time and that because she lacked acting training, she could only focus on the negatives.

The actress opened up about how difficult she found it to deal with fame following her role in the Pirates franchise. (ShowBizIreland.com/Getty Images)

She said: “I felt pretty much like actually I didn’t exist and I was this weird creature with this weird face that people seemed to respond to in quite an extreme way, and I couldn’t quite figure any of it out.”

Following this, she decided she didn’t want to do any big budget films from then on as she couldn’t hack what came with it.

She told The Telegraph in 2019: “The fame that came with them I just couldn’t handle.”

She also opened up to Variety and spoke candidly about undergoing ‘many years of therapy’ so that she could cope with the ‘level of scrutiny and that level of fame’ that the franchise brought along with it.

She added: “So looking back, would I do anything different? No, I wouldn’t because I’m unbelievably lucky now, and my career is in a place where I really enjoy it, and I have a level of fame that’s much less intense.”

Knightley is now an advocate for gender equality and how women can be affected by fame and life in the spotlight. (Kristy Sparow/WireImage)

Since she decided to go on a break, she’s been an advocate for gender inequality, how paparazzi and fame can impact young women in the limelight and also the pressures of being a mother.

With two children herself, she understands that motherhood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be on TV and that it’s a lot harder than you initially think.

It seems that it’s not all fame and fortune when you become a celebrity - it can be pretty harrowing.