Organza cape, embellished organza top, sequined organza dress, all Chanel. White gold and diamond ring, from a selection, Chanel Fine Jewellery. Photography: Boo George for Harper’s BAZAAR
Yet now she wonders out loud why it never occurred to her before to call out the misogyny she has personally experienced. “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 sighs. “I think that’s why I’m enjoying listening to Boudica.”
With immaculate timing, 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,” she observes philosophically. “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.” Has she experienced harassment herself? “Yes! I mean, everybody has. 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.”
Embellished silk jacquard dress, from a selection; glass and strass belt (worn as a necklace), both Chanel. White gold and diamond earrings, from a selection; white gold and diamond ring, both Chanel Fine Jewellery. Photography: Boo George for Harper’s BAZAAR
Unsurprisingly, she says wearing a mask over the past year has been quite a liberating experience. And given that most of us feel a little trepidation at resuming normal life, how much harder must it be to have to step back into the spotlight in front of the world’s media? “Make-up is an armour,” she says. She quite enjoys the process of getting dressed and glammed up, “but my husband and my elder kid don’t like it at all. My husband says, ‘Oh, you’re her.’ They don’t see it as me – and I don’t either. It’s something other, like a character.” A nice one? “Not particularly. No, she can’t be. She’s got to be quite fierce. It’s an armour, and I think that’s how it has to be.”
A few days later, I am walking back from the shops with one daughter, the dog and an armload of dry cleaning, when Knightley and Righton walk past. She is wearing a mask, and she is looking… quite fierce. But when our eyes meet across the street, she smiles and calls out a greeting, and I think: no wonder the whole neighbourhood is her friend.
Keira Knightley is a Chanel Beauty ambassador. The July issue of Harper’s Bazaar is out now.
