Paparazzi harassment pushed Keira Knightley to step back from acting

Keira Knightley said she temporarily walked away from acting and went into hiding at the height of her early fame after sustained harassment from paparazzi left her feeling stalked and unsafe. In a recent interview the actor described waking one morning to about 10 photographers outside her home and enduring what she called years of targeted surveillance, verbal abuse and aggressive tactics that pushed her to the edge.

Knightley said the intrusion lasted for roughly five years and included photographers renting apartments opposite her residence, using long lenses to peer into private spaces and following her across London and Europe. She described repeated attempts to provoke a reaction by shouting misogynistic slurs, including the words "whore" and "slut," particularly when she was with family members. Those efforts, she said, were intended to elicit confrontations that could be monetized. Knightley also alleged photographers staged or encouraged dangerous incidents on roads to capture sensational images.

The pressure affected her mental health. "I went mad," she said, adding that she only managed to conceal her distress. She described a heightened state of vigilance in which...