Here's why Keira Knightly initially thought 'Pirates of the Caribbean' would 'fail'

Keira Knightly was not sure about signing on to Pirates of the Caribbean, thinking that the movie would flop.

During ABC’s The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer Special, which aired on Tuesday, November 30, 2022, the director shared an incident where the actress was uncertain of her role at the time.

In the show, Richard Curtis, writer and director for Love Actually, recalled a conversation the actress during the making of his 2003 romcom.

"I remember sitting down with Keira while we were shooting and saying, 'What are you doing next?'" Curtis said of the actress, who played Juliet in Love Actually. "And she said, 'I don't think it's going to work. It's a pirate film and they always fail.’”

Knightley starred in the first Pirates movie, which also came out in 2003, as Elizabeth Swann. The movie grossed more than $650 million dollars and spawned multiple sequels, per Entertainment Tonight.

Knightley, along with costar Orlando Bloom, decided not to return for the franchise's fourth instalment, On Stranger Tides. However, the two actors made a brief cameo in the fifth instalment Dead Men Tell No Tales. Bloom attributed his absence to wanting to pursue other projects, via CBR.

In 2010, Knightley decided to bid farewell to the franchise claiming that was happy to have filmed just three films. “I said when I finished the trilogy that that was going to be it – I had a wonderful time on it and I met some extraordinary people but you know, I think, for me three is enough, definitely," Knightley said at the Laurence Olivier Awards in London.