Keira Knightley says she doesn't do modern films because 'female characters nearly always get raped'

Keira Knightley has claimed she rarely chooses to act in films set in the modern day because “female characters nearly always get raped”.

The British actress said she found “something distasteful” in the way women are portrayed on film, finding “inspiring characters” she wanted to play more often in historical drama.

In an interview about her new role playing French novelist Colette, Knightley said that although there had been some improvement, film still seemed to lag behind the stories told by television streaming services.

“With the rise of Netflix and Amazon we’re seeing some strong female characters and female stories on streaming services,” she told film magazine Variety.

“I don’t know about films as much. 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.

“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.”

Colette, a historical drama about the colourful life of the French author best-known for Gigi, will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

Knightley, 32, admitted she had come to terms with her love of period drama, after playing roles in Anna Karenina, The Duchess, The Imitation Game, Atonement and donning a corset for one of her early breakthroughs in Pirates of the Caribbean.

“For years I felt quite guilty about it, like it was something that I should try to shake off,” she said. “Then I realized that these were the films I’ve always loved watching.

“I think some people find escapism through science fiction or fantasy, and I suppose my escapism into another world has always been through period drama.

“It’s nice that in my 30s I can finally admit that.”

On the sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood, she said she had been surprised by “some of the specifics”, and had undertaken an “eye-opener” of a conversation with non-acting friends where they established “there wasn’t one of us who hadn’t been assaulted at some point”.

Disclosing she could identify four occasions, outside of film sets, where she had been “assaulted in a minor way”, Knightley added it was “terrifying” that women had previously responded by believing “this is just normal”

Keira Knightley is among the high-profile actresses donating to the Time's Up campaign, pledging $10,000 to a legal fund to help less privileged women bring their harassers to justice.