Orlando and Keira: Uncut!

So, Keira, you had to be convinced to even attend the audition for the first Pirates movie, didn’t you? Are you surprised by the series’ success?
Keira: “Yeah! Everyone laughed when I told them I was doing a film based on a Disney theme-park ride. No-one thought it was going to make much money. But then with the second film, we thought it was safer because the first one was so big, but still, no-one thought it was going to be quite so big.”

Isn’t it all just a big five-year blur? Are you going to remember enough stuff when it comes to writing your autobiography?
KK: “Well, the years have sort of… melged together…”

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So what do you do when you have time off?
KK: “Absolutely nothing! I walk around. I cook a lot. I have friends over to the flat and we drink very good wine. I cook a damned good roast - I’m a big meat eater. Chicken and loads of veg. I’ve got a great book called ‘The Silver Spoon’ [Italian cookery bible] and I’ve been going through that and trying everything. It’s taught me how to be economical. So if you do chicken on a Sunday, you freeze the stock and then have risotto and soups during the week. It’s great!”

OB: “Yeah… At the moment, I’m loving that feeling of not… really… having anything to do. I just went to Antarctica for a few weeks. That was incredible. I spent three weeks on a 1950s Norwegian ice-breaker, sleeping in a room the size of a bus shelter, sharing a toilet and bathroom with 27 other people. It was great to be there with no privileges – the most surreal real experience I’ve had in a long time. I went scuba diving, climbed up a mountain, snowboarded down… I even had a swim in the Arctic water, which was… cold. But it was great to be there with no phone, no fax, no e-mail… I’m about to go off to Indonesia for UNICEF. I’m also building my own house! I’ve been doing that for a year as a spare time thing. I picked a great, young Italian architect and it’s been a real creative collaboration. No, I don’t have a huge bathroom with a bath you could have a swim in, but…”

Really? On your money?
OB: (Laughs): “Seriously! It’s not the actors who’re making the money. It’s the boys in the city! Building my own place /has/ been massively stressful – the time and budget quickly doubled, but it feels good because I’ve had the control to make it a ‘green’ house – with solar panels and energy-efficient light-bulbs, and I’ve tried to use recycled materials for the floors.”

KK: “I’ve been doing charity stuff too, you know! I used to have a huge collection of shoes. I was the Imelda Marcos of the acting world. But they’ve all gone to the charity shop, now. [Little girl voice, mock-pout…] I’ve only got about three or four pairs left… And I also donated my Oscars dress to Oxfam. It’s a fucking huge dress and I’ve got nowhere to put it and I’m never going to wear it again, so…”

How do you both cope with privacy and security, being so well-known now?
OB: “Yeah. That’s one of the reasons I’m building my own house. To have privacy and security in the middle of London - forget about it! But it’s not like I want to exclude myself from society or anything. I’m not that kind of person. I’m very social and like to be part of a community. That’s the odd part about having become such a recognised face. In my late twenties, I went into a shell but now I want to come out of it. At the same time, privacy is important. In our culture, there’s an obsession with knowing everything about celebrities. People of the past like Cary Grant – there was a fantastic mystique about them. You never knew what they were going to do next. I’ve always tried to keep my cards close to my chest while wearing my heart on my sleeve. But it’s tough to do.”

OB: “It’s funny, isn’t it? She’s beautiful , as well. It’s odd that you bump into somebody and that comes out. Another example of that: I was having dinner in London the other night and I bumped into Bryan Singer. The next time I saw my mum, she’s like, ‘So, I hear you got a part in the new Superman movie!’ It’s mad. I didn’t go to drama school expecting that one day this kind of thing would be part of my life. They recently snapped me in Hawaii taking a piss up against a rock…”

KK: “I don’t feel that way. For me, it’s not part of the job. Legally, I don’t have a choice. I have to deal with it. But personally, I think… it’s sick . The pressure the entertainment industry puts on young women is sick. And it’s not so much what pictures they print or what they say. It’s… a young woman being followed around by five men who could be anyone and you have no way of telling who they are – if they’re legitimate photographers or rapists. It’s terrifying.”

Yeah, press prurience can be pretty horrible. So, Orlando, you’re not actually seeing anyone at the moment? Can we confirm that? Not Kate Bosworth, not Miranda Kerr…
OB: “(Laughs). No! No-one. I know I always say that. And you can print, ‘Orlando is available!’ if you want, but it’s true this time. I’d love to be able to think about having my own family one day, but it’s going to take a very special woman who’s grounded enough to be able to deal with the kind of bizarre circumstances I find myself in…”

KK: “I love the physical side! I have more fighting scenes in the new movie. Well, I actually had lots of them in the second one, but they cut them out. Bastards! I certainly /shot/ a lot of fighting scenes... What’s great about my job is that you get to do lots of things you’d never normally do – like swordfighting. Getting paid to learn how to swordfight is pretty fucking cool! Some of it can be a bit much, though. For Pirates 3, we did this long fight sequence in torrential movie-rain and we were all in wetsuits the whole time and the stage was on an uphill incline and the fake rain was kept just above freezing – because if it was any warmer then bacteria would have got into it and everyone would have been sick. So, I’m there in freezing cold torrential rain and I can barely see a foot in front of my face, and I’m concentrating on my moves for a fight scene that’s also a love scene where me and Will finally get married – so we couldn’t use any stunt doubles.”

How about the weirder stuff? Reacting to green-screen and having to imagine CG effects?
KK: “Yeah, it’s strange. Whenever we did scenes with Bill Nighy, you have to imagine this big tentacley thing. But he was wearing this really unattractive grey suit with a grey hood – disturbingly skin-tight, with little dots all over it. And if you’re doing a fight scene with him, then it’s not even Bill Nighy, it’s this big stuntman.”

Did you learn a lot from working with people like Chow-Yun Fat?
KK: “God, yeah! He’s amazing. The American crew were brilliant. He was telling me that it’s a lot more collaborative on the sets of Chinese movies – the actors are given a forum. On American movies, the emphasis is more technical – the camera department rule and the actors just have to get on with it. But he’s so cool. The crew totally switched their mindset just for him. And believe me – you fucking would!”

Umm, no…
KK: “There are plenty of sex scenes in the book, so the adaptation is true to its source. I mean, Jesus Christ. It’s not like I haven’t taken my clothes off on film before, is it? I think soon, people are going to insist I keep my clothes on ... But, no. I don’t have a problem with nudity. I’ve never had a problem with nudity. I have more of an issue with violence – although I have made incredibly violent films. I don’t believe in censorship. But I wouldn’t do anything I didn’t feel completely comfortable with. If I felt uncomfortable in any situation, I’d simply walk out. But I suppose I’m very European in my attitude to my body. I’m an actress. I have certain tools. One of them is my body. I don’t mind stripping off occasionally.”

Orlando, you recently turned 30 while shooting in Hawaii. Weird time and place to celebrate such a milestone…
OB: “Yeah! I had a bit of a bash in Hawaii and then another one in LA. Everyone tells you it’s the landmark age but weirdly it felt really good. I feel happy to have lived this far. I never thought I’d make it to 30! It feels good, though. Less urgent and more considered. A bit more reflective. Sort of, ‘How much living do I want to do?’. Because, as much as working has been my life, it feels like there’s been a shift on what the priorities are. This is the first time in eight years that I haven’t had a job I’m immediately going into. That’s given me a moment to take a breath and look around and think about exactly what I want to do at this point.”

You say you didn’t think you’d make 30, and in Pirates 3 there’s a cameo from someone who we’re amazed can still put one foot in front of the other – Keith Richards…
OB: “I actually made a point of not going to the set when Keith was working, and I’m kicking myself for it now. I thought that he was gonna be so hounded. I imagine it was pretty nerve-wracking for him, even though he is, y’know, a rock God or whatever.”

Do you both feel like a change of tone? More intimate movies?
Orlando: “Nah, I want to do another big trilogy! Complete my hat-trick!. And I need a sword – or at least a bow and arrow… Nah. The movies that I’ve really loved in the past few years have been stuff like The Constant Gardener, Hotel Rwanda, The Last King Of Scotland, Blood Diamond… Human stories that shed light on parts of the world we don’t pay much attention to.”

OB: “As a kid, I loved movies, but going to drama school really got theatre in my blood and so now I’m wondering if there’s something smaller and more intimate I could do. The right kind of play – something really organic. I don’t want to be tossed out onto the West End with my balls left hanging, but it’d be great to be part of a company or something. Mind you, Daniel Radcliffe did an amazing job with Equus – really ballsy. A very brave choice. And I can see why he did it.”

Does it feel like you’re ‘hiding’ on a big film, and getting up there on stage is the big way of proving yourself?
OB: “Definitely. That’s why I’d like to do the play in Britain. I love being British. It’s a great equaliser. Y’know – rugby is one of our national sports and when you get too high and mighty, it’s like Britain comes to tackle you down. We’re all part of the same pack. My mum and sister do it to me a lot. I’d love to do a play, but it’d have to be the right play. I wouldn’t want to be just thrust into a star vehicle. I mentioned Equus and you could say that was a star vehicle, but it was also a good choice for him. And that’s what this business is all about – making the right choices. Now that I’ve turned 30, I don’t feel like the next job I do is gonna define the kind of actor I am, but I’ve built up a body of work that gives me the chance to make those choices. If Leonardo DiCaprio can go from Titanic to The Man In The Iron Mask and The Beach and then finally get to The Departed, then so can I. It’s as much about saying no to stuff as it is about saying yes.”

So do you find it easy to handle the piss-taking – even the nasty stuff?
OB: “Mostly, yeah. People do say hurtful things but I only hear about some of them. My mum says, ‘Don’t worry, darling, you’re going to be fine…’ That makes me sit up and say, ‘What!? What are they saying about me?’ But then the good can be as bad as the bad. It all… alters your head. You don’t want to hear the criticism but you don’t want to hear the praise, either… I think Paul Newman said, ‘A man without enemies is a man without character’. There are some people you’re just not gonna get. They’re not gonna get you, you’re not gonna get them, and that’s the end of it. It’s all good, though. If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger, right?”

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