Keira Knightley Explains Why ‘Colette’ Is An 100-Year-Old Feminist Story That Is Just As Relevant Today [Interview]

I was moved by the movie, but I can only imagine how a woman feels watching these events unfold and thinking, “Wow, this was just 100 years ago.”

Well, especially that speech she gives to Willy at the end, a lot of women will watch it and go “Yup, I get that.”

She’s also credited in taking part in the creation of what we call today the “modern woman.”

Yes! Being true to yourself and achieving that without shame. I think that’s what being a woman should be about. Women still apologize for what and who they are, but she didn’t and that’s hugely inspiring.

How was it working with [director] Wash Westmoreland?

He’s such a nice man and this story is obviously very personal to him. He’d been working on it for 15 years with his late partner Richard [Glatzer]. It was a film they both desperately wanted to make. We all knew that was the case, this has been a love story and it was coming together and the tragedy of Richard’s death and him not being able to see it be made, so we all felt like we were on a mission to do this in his honor. Wash knew the subject matter so well, you could feel that this was an obsession, and that’s very helpful actually because he’s very clear about what he wants and he’s clear about his point of view of the story and that’s great.

So with all that being said, the film is moving. It is undeniably relevant and paints a sordid picture of how women were and still are treated. Yet, it’s a tremendously entertaining crowd-pleaser.

As much as we’re hating on Willy, the relationship that he and Colette had was fabulous. Of course, it’s awful and horrific but fabulous, because they are such charming beasts. It was important to not just have Willy as a villain, you had to see why she fell in love with him, you had to see when it worked and why it worked. And I think the brilliant thing about Dominic West is that he has such unbelievable charisma. You want the actor that plays Willy to be the fun guy at the party, the guy you sit next to at dinner, you might not want to be married to him [laughs] but you understand why she is captivated by him. So, I think that he and Colette had great fun.

Dominic seems really invested into this role. Did his investment into the role sometimes blur the line between reality and fantasy on-set?

Sometimes. [laughs] I won’t go any further than that. [laughs] He’s not afraid to play characters that are horrible but he’s also not afraid to make them likable. So, I think he has the ability to not judge the people that he plays, even if he’s playing a complete and utter monster.

But it’s never a caricature, there’s still a humanism that Dominic brings to Willy

Yeah, it’s never caricatured and I think that’s true to life. Most of the horrific people, they get away with it for some reason because they have that something they could use to escape unharmed.

And yet she persists through the chauvinism in ways a woman just wouldn’t be able to in the early 1900’s

I found her so vital and you could only hope other people get inspired by the film.

“Colette” is in theaters now. Here’s the trailer: