Keira Knightley filmed a new short film for free?

From PopEater.com...

In her new film, Oscar-nominated actress Keira Knightley plays an Elizabethan courtier who is unsuccessfully reunited with her lover when the couple gets trapped inside an unwieldy maze. The 10-minute short, which co-stars its director, Stuart Pearson Wright, was filmed on a $23,000 budget and shot in just one day. But the real kicker: Knightley did it all for free.

In a new interview with the Independent, Knightley explains why she waived her normal fee to take part in this relatively obscure project.

 Keira Knigthley in Maze (source: The Independent Film)

"I loved the idea of doing something that was purely creative, weird and wonderful and not a commercial venture," she said. "Ideas were e-mailed and then developed at Stuart's studio over cupcakes and tea and under the skeleton of his dog and a film piece was decided on: a collision of our worlds."

'Maze,' which was shot last year in true low-budget fashion (Knightley's dressing room was a bedroom, according to the article), will have an even quieter premiere next month at the Riflemaker gallery in London, where it will be screened alongside Wright's paintings.

"Part of the reason for me wanting to use an actress like Keira is her association with period dramas," Wright said. "Those associations are important, to lull the audience into a false sense of the familiar. The juxtaposition of a Hollywood actress in period costume with a very contemporary shooting style, being jostled about by a jumpy camera, is an incongruous and uncomfortable one."

The pair met in the dressing room of a mutual friend, Rosamund Pike, when she starred in Gaslight at the Old Vic in 2007. Knightley says: "Stuart was wearing plus-fours and I thought it an extraordinary thing that someone had the balls..."

Nevertheless, they went out for a meal, along with Knightley's partner, Rupert Friend, and Pike. Knightley found herself sitting next to Pearson Wright, whose work she admired. "I first came across Stuart's work in French's [theatre] bookshop, where I picked up a copy of his drawings of actors, which I loved," she says.

Soon afterwards they met again, at a party hosted by their friend Joe Wright, the director of Atonement, "at which we formed a band with kids' instruments; I the kazoo, he the plastic trombone" says Knightley. They discussed potential projects. Read full article here!

The film will mark Wright's directorial debut. Meanwhile, Knightley has a number of projects upcoming, including 'Last Night,' opposite Sam Worthington and Eva Mendes. She's also in talks to join Eric Bana and Richard Gere in Noah Baumach's adaptation of 'The Emperor's Children,' based on the novel by Claire Messud.

Also, a related article that mentioned both Keira and Rosamund...



Cowboys, Kazoos, and Keira Knightley - an interview with Stuart Pearson Wright

“I saw Rosamund Pike in Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight at the Old Vic a few years ago, and went to visit her afterwards to say hello – I'd painted her portrait before – and Keira Knightley was in there too. It's sort of every young man's dream – to be in a dressing room with Rosamund Pike and Keira Knightley! We ended up going for dinner all together – Rosamund suggested we go and get some food, so I said, 'yeah! I'm up for that!'. So I found myself sitting next to Keira Knightley having dinner...”