The SmoothSlick'n'Shiny interview: Keira Knightley

 With the imminent release of her new movie adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic Anna Karenina, we took the chance to have a cup of coffee with it’s stunning star, British Actress Keira Knightly. However this being SmoothSlicknShiny it was not her stellar movie success which intrigued us most, but her blossoming modelling career as the face of legendary perfume house Chanel’s Mademoiselle and of cause those photos featuring the first glimpses of a very different Keira Knightley from the English rose we all grew up with.

SmoothSlicknShiny:  How did this epic leap from English rose to fetish queen come about?
Keira Knighley:  Fetish Queen! Oh f**k no. no I have a long way to go before I can claim that crown.
S.S.S:  So this is an on going thing?
K.K : Now don’t start.
S.S.S: Just testing, please do go on.
K.K :  Well when Chanel asked me to do the third series of commercials for Mademoiselle I was delighted. The first two had been such fun to do, they are very creative team and so I said yes almost there and then.
S.S.S: Was the theme clear from the outset?
K.K: The first meeting in terms of theme made it clear to me this was not going to be like the others in tone and they explained the title of the campaign was to be “Unexpected”. Which when you know the perfume, as I do, you understand. Mademoiselle is not what you expect, it is unlike the other classic Chanel perfumes, so it was this they wanted to bring over. To take the brand into a new area. I thought fine, that’s great, no problem. Then they mentioned the idea of fetish and I thought, “OK, well why not”, after all people have a fetish for many thing, shoes, underwear, anything really so why not perfumes.The word Latex though did come as a bit of a surprise and I admit I had an “Oh F**k?” moment.
S.S.S: Bit of a shock then.
K.K: Well it was not a shock as such, I mean Latex is not a underground as it once was, it’s just we have never crossed paths before and latex and rubber clothing was very much alien to me. I had worn leather before and I have a PVC Mac in the closet, but Latex? “F**K.” and for a few days I did think about backing out. However I realised I was in very safe hands, with a team I knew and trusted and after a while and a few more meetings and seeing the designs they had in mind, I felt a lot more confident and then realised there was a character there I had never worked with before. That’s what I do, as an actress. It is fun to find the character and i thought this would be a challenge. So that was it.
S.S.S: How did you prepare, did you do homework as you might for a film role?

K.K:. Yes very much so. As I said I had no experience of Latex before as an actress or model and so I made a secret visit to one of the designers I would be wearing in the shoot in London. I say secret because I did not really want photos of me going to a fetish designer suddenly appearing in the press. Not that I would have been ashamed, but you know. I can imagine the phone calls from the family now. Anyway I had seen House of Harlots work modelled by British model Kelly Brook a few months earlier and thought there would be a good place to start and after two or three hours of talc and wriggling in and out of some very beautiful dresses and outfits i came to two conclusions. Firstly unlike me, Kelly has they perfect figure for latex and secondly and more importantly I quite liked it.
S.S.S: The words all fetish fans have been longing to hear.

K.K: Well maybe not liked, sorry folks, more, well, the feeling of Latex was not what I had imagined. I thought F**k this will be sticky and itchy and hot and well not much fun. So I was wrong there and that is why we do our homework. Yes it was tightly constrictive, yet I was surprised it allowed total freedom of movement, even in such things a good knee length skirt, yes you can feel the material fighting you, but it never impeded your movements. The other thing I never imagined and I do admit found rather sexy was  the sound, that popping, rustle, like nothing else.
S.S.S: It speaks to you.
K.K: Yes that’s right and nothing else is quite like it I that respect.
S.S.S: So a far more pleasurable experience than you had expected.
K.K.K:  PAUSE…..Yes, I would say it was, but what was more important and delightful was somewhere in all that heat and talc I found the character, fully formed. Elegant, cool, strong and dark, an independent minded woman who was happy to go her own way and show it And what did my friends at Chanel say?….. “You have described the perfect Chanel Mademoiselle ”. So F**k it, I was in.
S.S.S: How was the shoot?
K.K: In a word hot, In two words F**king hot. The trial run with House of Harlot was nothing to getting under the studio lights in those outfits. I mean F**k me I was sweating like a horse. The outfit we shot in the white tiled room was so hot I could feel the sweat tricking into some very naughty. I think I was under the lights for 2 hours and in the outfit for maybe a hour before with dressing and polishing. Polishing there is the weirdest part of all, you wriggle your way in to these outfits, get them all lined up and comfy and then someone takes another 20minutes or so spraying you with polish and buffing you  up and can I ask you a question. Why can’t they just polish the parts the camera sees?
S.S.S: It is the way of it, any unpolished Latex would almost be a sin.
K.K: I get that and don’t get me wrong the effect was amazing, but f**k me do we have to polish every Millimetre. I mean my T*TS are small so do we really need to take so long.
S.S.S: Not fun then
K.K: Oh don’t get me wrong I had no problem with it from the hands on element. I have worked with Carla before so there was no problem with her getting up close, but f**K me I was just getting hotter and hotter. “How’s it going Keira?”    “Oh no worries Adam, Just having my A**s polished….again”.
S.S.S: Now I think for our readers I should say you are saying this with a very wide smile.
K.K: Oh yes, don’t get me wrong the shoot was a total laugh, especially when the room is still, you are ready to go, game face on and then with the faintest of movements your dress “Farts”. No it was a very nice experience.
S.S.S: You shot one image on the streets of London. Do tell us how that worked.
K.K: Oh that was in the House of Harlot business suit. We could have done it in the studio and matted the image over the background but Adam wanted it “live”. So it was a few weeks after the Paris shoot we met back at HARLOT, but the problem is, Adam wanted a distinct London look, everyday, normal London, rain, bus, all that. So we got the rain no problem, a basic London street no problem, a London Bus…..Oh F**k. The bus route did not run past the shop so we could not just nip out into the street and shoot and nip back in. We had to go to the end of the road. So we got the bus timetable, right one very 5 minutes no worries. Got everything ready, which means me and when we got a call from Louise on the corner we would rush out to the end of the road, “snap snap” back in. Call comes “Go Go”, we all come out of the shop, me freshly polished, with a Mac covering the dress and run to the end of the road, just as a bus passes. S**T!. Do we go back?, do we stay?. You can’t trust the London timetable so we just waited……and waited….and waited. Then when one finally came we slipped the Mac off here we go…… and the Bus stops just short of us.
S.S.S: So there is Oscar nominated actress Keira Knightley standing on a damp street, wearing House of Harlot Latex, with a bus full of passengers looking down at you.
K.K: Not entirely, thanks to the umbrella I was able to hide a little. I mean with cameras everywhere these days that would have come out for sure. But it was fine in the end and I think it is one of my favourites.
S.S.S: Favourites. Which outfit?
K.K: Um, I liked the Harlot Business suit and the blue dress. Really classic and stylish.
S.S.S: Disliked?
K.K:  Oh that F**king red catsuit, to hot, to tight to F**king everything. Never ever again, there were pools of sweat dripping off me. I think I wore that for almost 5 hours because there was a problem with the lights. No not a favourite
S.S.S: Finally I believe you took something home?
K.K: Don’t get carried away now. Yes I did I have the heels from the white room shoot and the red latex Jacket from Polymorphe. Which I think will get a lot of wear.
S.S.S: And the skirt?
K.K: That would be telling.

But the smile on her face tells you all you need to know.

So with her Oscar tipped performance in Anna Karenina and a very provocative campaign for Chanel coming up I think we will be seeing much more of the gorgeous, if potty mouthed, Keira Knightley for years to come.
 Now where is my bus timetable?

XXXX
Andy