BAFTA makes up for Keira snub

Posted by Charles on Wednesday 16 Jan 2008

Filed under: Keira Knightley

Two years ago, when director Joe Wright accepted an award for Pride & Prejudice at the BAFTA ceremony, he took the opportunity to berate the British Academy members for not nominating his lead actress Keira Knightley. Despite her being nominated for a Best Actress Oscar that year, Keira had been cruelly snubbed by the voters on her home turf. “I feel she should be here and I am kind of surprised she is not,” said Wright, going distinctly off-message from the usual awards-acceptance gush. “I think it’s a real shame,” he explained to the press backstage immediately afterwards. “I just don’t understand it. I think it’s a slight problem of the British psyche not supporting each other sometimes.” Well, it seems the BAFTA members were listening, and have belatedly made amends by nominating her for her latest film Atonement, also directed by Wright. Keira herself recently described her former acting reputation as being “a pretty face who’s shit”; she’ll be relieved that BAFTA members at least think that’s no longer the case.