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Keira Knightley felt “neurotic” under the age of 25.
The Imitation Game actress received a lot of criticism early on in her career for her slim figure.
And Keira, who is now 29 years old, confesses she took a lot of the mean comments to heart as a young woman.
“Everything up to 25 I was pretty neurotic and taking everything far too seriously,” she told British newspaper The Mirror.
“I found it difficult to step back from it and I was taking it very personally. Partly because as an actor you don’t want necessarily that thicker skin, and I couldn’t figure how to be open emotionally and yet get a thick enough skin so that things didn’t hurt.”
Ultimately Keira found a way to create an empowering context for the brutal things people said about her.
The star came to the realisation she had nothing to do with other people’s comments.
“I don’t know if it was a chemical thing, a certain kind of realisation that it really didn’t matter – and a sudden realisation of what you have control of and you don’t,” she shared. “You suddenly have a moment where you go, actually I can’t do anything about that.”
Keira has also adopted practical ways to avoid emotional distress.
The actress refuses to do an Internet search on her name.
“I don’t Google myself – that was the problem before 25. Not that I did it all the time, but I certainly saw enough to say, ‘Oh you shouldn’t look’. I mean, you don’t need to look, it is not helpful,” she said.
“You have to be quite vigilant about it. Again I think this is probably the same if you are on social media and if you do put anything out in the public, you are opening yourself up now to a lot of criticism and a lot of people telling you they hate you.”