The “Star Wars” prequels have been usually criticized for his or her picket performing, and possibly a part of that needed to do with Lucas’ determination to disclaim actors their scripts till shortly earlier than they needed to carry out. Regardless of the case, “The Phantom Menace” was very a lot not Knightley’s breakout function. Each she and Portman spoke in a unusually monotone voice, and your entire decoy storyline was admittedly extra complicated than it was thrilling.
The function did get Knightley’s foot within the door, with greater and higher roles to come back, nevertheless it additionally meant she spent her early profession being recognized (to at the very least some extent) as Low cost Natalie Portman. It appeared to trouble her barely within the early 2000s, as Knightley was fast to level out that the 2 do not really look that a lot alike. “We each have brown hair and brown eyes,” she stated, “I can safely say that is the place the similarities finish.”
Fortunately, Knightley had loads of alternatives to show her performing chops, with emotional lead performances in movies like “Pleasure & Prejudice” and “By no means Let Me Go.” As extra time goes by, the clearer it will get that Knightly and Portman are very a lot separate performers with completely different talent units. Knightley might have appeared like a duplicate of Portman again in “The Phantom Menace,” however her profession over the previous 25 years has positively been its personal distinctive factor.
