Keira Knightley will always be associated first and foremost with period dramas and lacy dresses, but according to the actress, it's nice to change it up every once in a while.
The star is currently working on Kenneth Branagh's take on the Jack Ryan character, and says that she made a conscious decision to take on some big, fun roles going into 2013.
"I got to the end of Anna Karenina and realised that I’d been sort of doing pieces of work that were incredibly dark and I pretty much died in a lot of them for five years," says Knightley. "I wanted this year to be the year of positivity and pure entertainment, and Jack Ryan is a really great, old school, Hollywood thriller and a piece of pure entertainment."
Knightley says filming is set to draw to a close in early December, although she's keen to stress that her affinity with period cinema remains as strong as it ever did.
"Your imagination is required instantly in a period film, because it’s a world that you don’t know with rules you don’t know. I think I certainly relate to characters on an emotional level very differently in period pieces… there’s a very different relationship with the story. I think that’s why I enjoy doing period things."
Jack Ryan opens in UK cinemas on 26 December 2013.
