Knightley says only British care about spanking

Keira Knightley has joked that only the British have taken such a keen interest in the sadomasochistic scenes in her new film A Dangerous Method.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star attended the premiere of David Cronenberg’s new film at the May Fair hotel in London last night, with co-stars Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen, in which she plays psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s patient and lover, Sabina Spielrein.

In the film Knightley appears topless, tied to a bed while Fassbender, who plays Jung, spanks her behind.

Knightley said: “I did think about turning it down because of the two scenes of a sadomasochistic nature, and I thought it’s all going to come out and all of a sudden it’s all going to all be about that.

“And weirdly, apart from this country, it hasn’t been, so that’s been really great.

“In England it’s got mentioned all the time. I don’t know what that says about us! We obviously like spanking, I don’t know.”

Fassbender insisted that working on the scenes with Knightley had been easy.

Cronenberg’s film looks at the friendship that developed between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Jung’s relationship with Spielrein.