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Keira Knightley’s Former Director John Carney Slams Her Acting Skills, Constant Entourage

Keira Knightley has been criticized by a former director for having a crazy entourage
Keira Knightley has been criticized by a former director for having a crazy entourageErnesto Ruscio/Getty Images

No love lost there! John Carney, who directed Kiera Knightley in the 2013 movie Begin Again, has slammed the actress for her lack of music and acting skills, and criticized her for having a large and constant entourage.

In an explosive interview with Britain's Independent newspaper, Carney, who is promoting his new movie, Sing Street, compared his experiences of working on his current movie with unknown actors, with those of working with Oscar nominee Knightley previously.

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"Keira has an entourage that follow her everywhere so it's very hard to get any real work done," the director revealed. "I was very ready to come back to Ireland and make films that nobody cared about who was in it or any of that crap."

Carney said he felt Begin Again (which also starred Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine) struggled to be realistic, in part because Knightley was not really a singer or musician.

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"I think the real problem was that Keira wasn't a singer and wasn't a guitar player and it's very hard to make music seem real if it's not with musicians," the director said. "And I think the audience struggled a little bit with that in Begin Again. And as much as I tried to make it work, I think that she didn't quite come out as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. So I really wanted to work with musicians and actors that could play their instruments properly and sing and stuff like that," he said of his new movie.

Carney added that his experience of working on a higher profile production had not been pleasant at all.

"I was a bit disenchanted with working with certain movie stars in that movie," he continued. "I didn't enjoy that experience of paparazzi and fabulous openings. The movie star world is not something that ever appealed to me."

And his experience taught him a lesson, he said, criticizing Knightley once again in the process: "I learned that I'll never make a film with supermodels again."

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Not everyone in Begin Again got a slating. Carney said Ruffalo was a "fantastic actor" and Levine was a "joy to work with," mainly because he wasn't scared "of exposing himself on camera and exploring who he is as an individual."

Cue another opportunity to bash Knightley: "I think that that's what you need as an actor; you need to not be afraid to find out who you really are when the camera's rolling. Keira's thing is to hide who you are and I don't think you can be an actor and do that."

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Just in case his point wasn't totally clear, Carney continued that in future, he would work with "proper film actors as opposed to movie stars."

"I don't want to rubbish Keira, but you know it's hard being a film actor," he went on. "It requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don't think she's ready for yet and I certainly don't think she was ready for on that film."

Tell Us: What do you think of Carney’s outspoken opinions?

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