Keira Knightley reveals she was 'stalked by men' after Pirates of the Caribbean success at just 17 years old

Many people long to be rich and famous but there's a dark side to becoming a household name, as Keira Knightley sadly discovered.

To make matters worse, the star was only 17-years-old at the time when he was 'stalked by men' after she found fame thanks to her role in Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Knightley played the role of Elizabeth Swann, and said the success came at a very high price.

She is starring in a new Netflix series, Black Doves, and told the Los Angeles Times about the distressing experiences she faced in her teens and early 20s.

Talking about her swift rise to the world of celebrity, Keira recalled: “It’s very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing."

Keira has opened up about how difficult life was finding fame at a young age (Buena Vista Pictures)

Imagine what it must feel like having every teenage mistake being broadcast and examined?

Knightley added that the experience did benefit her eventually: "Having said that, I wouldn’t have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I’m never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost.”

Part of the cost came around how she was treated in public, saying her 'jaw dropped at the time' due to some of the behaviour she witnessed.

“I didn’t think it was OK at the time. I was very clear on it being absolutely shocking. There was an amount of gaslighting to be told by a load of men that ‘you wanted this.’ It was rape speak. You know, ‘This is what you deserve.’ It was a very violent, misogynistic atmosphere," she explained.

"They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men. Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it — it felt the same to me," she said, seemingly referring to paparazzi or people selling stories.

"It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye," she recalled.

Knightly also had a very tough time with body shaming during the early days of her career.

Keira says social media makes life very difficult for young women and girls (Samir Hussein)

She says that nowadays there's a whole new threat to worry about too: social media.

”Social media has put that in a whole other context, when you look at the damage that’s been done to young women, to teenage girls.

"Ultimately, that’s what fame is — it’s being publicly shamed. A lot of teenage girls don’t survive that.”

Looking back at her time spent on Pirates, she has said it was 'the reason that I was taken down publicly.'

“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time," she explained.

"I was seen as shit because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for. They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”

Is it all worth it?