Driving the Point Across

Starting on April 6, Keira Knightley will star in a two-minute clip debuting in movie theaters, in the all-too-real role of a woman brutally attacked by her boyfriend.

The clip was helmed by Joe Wright, Knightley’s Pride & Prejudice and Atonement director, and serves as a new domestic violence ad for the charity Women’s Aid. It opens with the actress heading home from a long day of filming. When she gets home, her boyfriend verbally and physically attacks her because he thinks she’s having an affair with a co-star.

As the camera pans out, Knightley lies on the floor and the beating continues. The location is then revealed to be an empty film set. “Isn’t it time someone called cut?” the ad says:



“While domestic violence exists in every section of society we rarely hear about it,” Knightley said of her involvement in the project.

“Domestic violence affects one in four women at some point in their lifetime and kills two women every week.”