The actress talks about what made her sign up for another World War II film.
Actress Keira Knightley, who has films like Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually among others to her name, has mastered the skill to embody diverse roles set in different time periods with perfection and grace.
Knightley’s latest period drama, The Aftermath, based on Rhidian Brook’s 2013 novel of the same name, is directed by James Kent and is written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. The feature film is set in 1946 Germany and is equal parts provocative romance and intense drama.
The Aftermath features Knightley in the dramatic role of Rachael Morgan, a dutiful military wife who is reunited with her husband Lewis (essayed by Jason Clarke), a British colonel tasked with rebuilding Hamburg after the Second World War. To Rachael’s surprise, Lewis decided that they will take up residence in a grand home owned by a German widower played by Alexander Skarsgard.
In a recent interview with Variety, the actress reflected on the script that highlights a love triangle in the midst of rebuilding Germany in 1946. “I read it and thought I can’t do another World War II film,” Knightley told Variety. “And then it just really got stuck in my head. I think it’s because what I never realized was that the real triumph of that generation was actually that they managed to rebuild that continent. It was utterly destroyed by that conflict…I thought, God, I never actually thought about it and how extraordinary it is. When I was in school, at least, we were never taught about how to rebuild. And it seems quite important.”
Talking at the New York premiere of her post-war drama on Thursday, March 14, Knightley said, “I think I’ve always loved history, so films like this are an opportunity to keep learning. I love the fantasy of it, the make believe, bringing something that is, well, dead, back to life.”
The film released in the United States yesterday (March 15) while it had its world premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival last month.
– With information from Variety and Vogue
