Keira Knightley did something we’re not used to hearing about in Hollywood.
The 29-year-old actress posed topless for the August issue of Interview Magazine in protest against photoshop so people could see her in her natural state.
The shoot was reportedly a response to a 2004 King Arthur poster in which Knightley’s breasts were altered to look bigger than they actually are.
Knightley explained to British publication The Times why she wanted to do something different with this particular shoot, as she’s grown tired of her images being constantly manipulated by paparazzi and photographers.
“That [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are,” she said.
Even stars like Lena Dunham don’t object to photoshop, as we saw when the Girls star slammed Jezebel for publishing unedited images from her Vogue cover shoot in February. Dunham said Jezebel “made such a monumental error in their approach to feminism… It felt gross.”
In regards to Knightley’s shoot, the actress thinks the female body has become somewhat of a “battleground,” and photography is partially to blame.
“Our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape,” she said.
Knightley is on a press tour this month, discussing the standards for women and men in Hollywood and how they’re somewhat different, and apparently more degrading, at times.
The actress told Net-a-Porter she has turned down roles in the past after being asked to engage in explicit sex or violence that would never be asked of her male counterparts.
“It’s actually a difficult question: how much flesh are you meant to bare?” she asked. “We’re saying that we should be sexually liberated, but then again not that sexually liberated. It’s confusing.”
Lady Gaga is another celebrity to take a stand against photoshop. She critiqued her own Glamour images as she accepted an award from the magazine during their Women of the Year Awards ceremony in 2013.
“I felt my skin looked too perfect. I felt my hair looked too soft,” she said. “I do not look like this when I wake up in the morning… I don’t even look like this.”
The singer challenged young people to fight back against forces that make them feel inadequate and called for a change within the magazine industry.
“It is fair to write about the change in your magazines. But what I want to see is the change on your covers… When the covers change, that’s when culture changes,” said Lady Gaga.
Supermodel Coco Rocha was furious after Elle Brazil photoshopped clothing from her body in 2012. The model took to her personal blog to discuss the terms of her contract, which she felt were violated.
As a high fashion model I have long had a policy of no nudity or partial nudity in my photoshoots. For my recent Elle Brazil cover shoot I wore a body suit under a sheer dress, but recently discovered that the body suit was Photoshopped out to give the impression that I am showing much more skin than I actually was or am comfortable with.