Keira Knightley: I Don’t Know Anyone Who Hasn't Been Sexually Harassed, ‘There's a Curfew for Women'

Actress Keira Knightley says every woman she knows has been sexually harassed in some way by men, even with threats and violence.

“Literally, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been, in some way, whether it’s being flashed at, or groped, or some guy saying they’re going to slit your throat, or punching you in the face, or whatever it is, everybody has,” Knightley said in a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar.

The actress — who added that she has experienced harassment herself — also noted that she was brought up to be a feminist by her mother, the playwright Sharman Macdonald, and wondered out loud why it had never occurred to her to call out misogyny.

“It was when women started listing all the precautions they take when they walk home to make sure they’re safe, and I thought, I do every single one of them, and I don’t even think about it. It’s fucking depressing,” she said.

At that point during the interview, Harper’s Bazaar reported, “a lone male stranger wanders down the street towards us and starts shouting at her. ‘Do you go to this school? You look very young!’ ‘Thank you,’ she says politely, as we hastily depart to find sanctuary in a nearby garden square; he follows us there a few minutes later.”

“I think it’s quite interesting talking about this while being chased around,” Knightley added. “I love that politician who said there ought to be a curfew for men and men were outraged, and you think — but there’s a curfew for women and there always has been.”

On the topic of men who allegedly engage in sexual harassment, the industry in which Knightley works has a copious amount of reported instances that make behavior such as catcalling appear quite mundane.

In 2017, three decades’ worth of sexual misconduct allegations against the now-disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein were brought to the light. And over the years, many in Hollywood appeared to have known about Weinstein’s behavior but said nothing about it.

And while left-wing Hollywood elites enjoy lecturing Americans on morals, a study conducted last year found that the entertainment industry is failing to live up to the standards it wants to impose on others, as Hollywood still has a “permissive climate” of sexual harassment and racism.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.