Keira Knightley: Sense and Sensibility screenplay helped me overcome dyslexia

Keira Knightley, the actress, has disclosed that she overcame dyslexia as a child by reading a screenplay by Emma Thompson.

Keira Knightley appears on the cover of the March issue of GQ, out Thursday 2nd February 2011
Keira Knightley appears on the cover of the March issue of GQ, out Thursday 2nd February 2011 Credit: Photo: Norman Jean Roy/GQ

The 26-year-old said the only way she was able to get over her learning disability was by reading the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, and imagining what Thompson would do in her shoes.

Knightley, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six, said she was a “huge fan” of the 52-year-old Cambridge-educated actress and screenwriter, who won an Oscar for her film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.

She told GQ magazine: “My mum who worked with her [Thompson] on Sense and Sensibility got me a copy of the screenplay Emma had written.

“And I was – am – dyslexic and the way she got me over it was to say: ‘If Emma Thompson couldn’t read, she’d make ------- sure she'd get over it, so you have to start reading, because that’s what Emma Thompson would do’.”

She eventually left her mixed comprehensive school in Teddington with a string of GCSEs, some at A* grade, having struck a deal with her parents that she would study every day to overcome her dyslexia if they got her an agent.

Knightley, who won wide acclaim for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 2005 movie adaptation of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, added that she was sometimes reduced to tears by poor reviews of her work or comments she overheard as a student at school, but soon learned how to deal with criticism.

She once said in an interview: "I did a film called The Hole when I was 16 and, when it came out, a couple of the popular girls at school said, quite loudly, 'She's in a crap movie, so it doesn't count',

"It was rude and I was upset, but if you let that stuff bother you, you're going to be in for a tough time. I wasn't popular at school. I learned to let those comments wash over me. I toughened up quite quickly."

It is often said that children and adults with dyslexia are drawn to acting because of their social perception and powers of observation and imitation that enable them to 'get into the minds' of different characters.

Famous dyslexic actors include Orlando Bloom, Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, Vince Vaughn and Whoopi Goldberg.