I have a chip on my shoulder, says Knightley

Published on Saturday 2 August 2008 19:51

SHE has played swashbuckling heroines and sophisticated Victorian and Edwardian beauties in a series of intelligent roles, but actress Keira Knightley has revealed she has a "chip on her shoulder" because she does not have a university education.

The 23-year-old Oscar nominee dropped out of school in London at the age of 17 before taking her A-levels and says she now has to fight to prove to herself and others around her that she has brains. In an interview with Tatler magazine, published this week, she says: "I am completely uneducated.

"But not going to university did give me an incredible driving force because it leaves you with a slight chip on your shoulder. It makes me feel I am going to read absolutely everything so I can prove that I am not stupid."

While Knightley, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six, failed to finish school, many of her contemporaries obtained university degrees. Rachel Weisz and Thandie Newton studied at Cambridge, while Kate Beckinsale, Emilia Fox and Emily Mortimer are Oxford graduates.

Among those who did not go on to higher education, Kate Winslet has admitted to feeling "intellectually insecure" in the company of more educated actresses. Knightley's lack of a university education has not impeded her career. After leaving school, she landed a breakthrough role in a TV version of Doctor Zhivago for her air of understated elegance.

She then had a starring part in hit British comedy Bend It Like Beckham, which brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers.

Since then she has played Guinevere in King Arthur, Cecilia Tallis in Atonement, for which she received an Oscar nomination, and Dylan Thomas's lover Vera Phillips in The Edge Of Love.

Her best-known role is probably as the romantic interest in the blockbuster Pirates Of The Caribbean series alongside Johnny Depp.