'Female characters nearly always get raped': Keira Knightley explains why she doesn't do modern-day films anymore

Keira Knightley has admitted she doesn’t often do modern-day films because the female characters “nearly always get raped”.

In an interview with Variety, Knightly revealed that she finds “something distasteful” in the way that women are portrayed in modern films.

She told the publication: “I don’t really do films set in the modern day because the female characters nearly always get raped.

“I always find something distasteful in the way women are portrayed, whereas I’ve always found very inspiring characters offered to me in historical pieces.”

The actress added: “There’s been some improvement. I’m suddenly being sent scripts with present-day women who aren’t raped in the first five pages and aren’t simply there to be the loving girlfriend or wife.”

She said: “I’m fortunate that I’ve never been sexually abused professionally or harassed on a film set, but in my personal life, when I’ve been in bars, I can count four times when I’ve been what I’d say was assaulted in a minor way. I think everyone has battled their fair share of monsters. It’s not just actresses. It’s teachers; it’s lawyers.”

“There’s been a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. We’re in a period of time in which it all has to come out. Then we need to move forward and figure out how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Knightley plays the lead in the forthcoming Colette, about a woman battling to have her voice heard in historical France.

Of her role, the 32-year-old said: “It’s wonderful to play inspiring women and to get their stories and their voices out there. Within her writing, Colette was questioning the idea of gender and the idea of what was naturally feminine as opposed to society’s take on being feminine.

“Colette had female lovers and had what I suppose we would call a transgender lover. She felt that it was her right to experience pleasure and to give pleasure. That’s still a revolutionary idea for women.”

Colette will premiere later this month at the Sundance Film Festival.