Keira Knightley

ATONEMENT is a dazzling screen adaptation by director Joe Wright based on the bestseller by Ian McEwan and scripted by Christopher Hampton, with career bests from leads James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, the best romantic film since the English Patient acts as a canvas that shows the unbearable consequences of how one lie can destroy the outcome of more than one.

I met at a press roundtable with James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, screenwriter Christopher Hampton and Vanessa Redgrave in Beverly Hills, CA.

Yama: As I had mentioned to James, your roles were iconic like films such as The English Patient, Dr Zhivago and so on. Were you aware of it when you read the script?

Keira Knightley: That's very nice that it's perceived as such. I didn't think it was iconic but it was a well written script with well written characters. There are few good female characters in films but when you find one as this where it was in the script, I was incredibly lucky to get the part. I think what was so fascinating about the roles were that weren't just black and white but that they have different layers to them. My character's behaving badly but doesn't mean she's a bad person which is true for most people. So it's a very fascinating character.

YR: Tell us about your upcoming projects?

KK: I have a film coming out next year called The Edge of Love that's set in the WWII as well about a group around Dylan Thomas and the events up to an act of crime with Cillian Murphy, Mathew Rhys and Sienna Miller. It was written by mom which is very exciting. It was a very low budget film with an intense seven weeks shooting. It was a very exciting project to work on. Last week I finished a film called The Duchess. It's about the Dutchess of Devonshire who was the political hostess for the Wick party in the 1780's with Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling. It's about a marriage that goes wrong basically and the society at the time.

YR: How was it working with John Mayburry again? His films never reach mainstream audiences.

KK: I don't think it ever will. He's an artist. His film "Love is the Devil" is one of my favorite films. I worked with him on The Jacket and then again on The Edge of Love. I love working with him. I love his mind, it's a weird place but a wonderful place. Working with him is not like working the "Pirates" films but it's equally interesting.

YR: How is it working on a script written by your mom? How careful do you have to be with the wording?

KK: Well what she does is dialog. It's very stylized dialog and it's rythmic. So very often you can't change it. She's a playright, so she's specific. Unless you don't find the right word, you can't change it because it will mess up the beats. So no there was no dialog changes.

YR: Are you drawn to period pieces?

KK: No. It's just the stories that interested me were set in the past. I can't refuse a great project because it's a period piece. I'm very fortunate to be in a position to be able to choose the projects I'm working on. So I'm very selfish about the projects I chose. It has to be something that interests me, otherwise if it doesn't interes me, I won't be interesting in it and it won't be interesting to watch.

YR: Does the writer's strike affecting any of your projects?

KK: No. I don't have any projects at the moment. It affects only projects that don't have locked scripts. Joe Wright (Atonement) goes into production but he has a locked script which he usually does.