Keira Knightley: "I had a very lucky race very early"

Keira Knightley fought the pirates, was dazzled on the football field and played the Queen's lure on the screen. It was a sudden rise in fame for the star of the new movie "Colette", now 33 years old.

"The rise in glory I had when I was very young was pretty extreme," said Knightley in a recent appearance on "Popcorn with Peter Travers." "But I learned, and I understood what I like and do not like." Knightley added that she had developed a preference for period films.

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"I find it fascinating. I really find it fascinating, "she said. "As a genre, I love it. But that's the research I really like. It's like I can bring back the dead. I can put myself in the person's shoes and bring him back to life. I find it quite extraordinary.

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Knightley plays the role of French novelist Sidione-Gabrielle Colette, who agrees to become a ghostwriter for her husband played by Dominic West in the early 1900s.

"She was just that extraordinary being," Knightle told Peter Travers. "He had the merit of his first four novels. But it was that kind of extraordinary couple, that kind of celebrity, big stars in their own right. And it's like a trip in which she finds her voice and stands herself. I found it incredibly stimulating. "

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Travers pointed out that the film was based at a time when it was believed that people would not buy books written by women.

"People have said that movies featuring women until a few years ago," Knightley said. "People say that about movies made by women. I think that's what I liked about the script. We always have the same conversations. We certainly have not understood it yet. But is not it lucky that we have conversations? I just had the impression that it was extraordinary to present a piece created a hundred years ago and yet so modern and current. And that I, as anyone today, can look at it and leave, yes, I can understand that. "

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"Colette" is everywhere in the theaters.

Watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Keira Knightley in the video above.