Keira Knightley: Topless shoot was a Photoshop protest

Keira Knightley’s decision to pose topless on the cover of Interview magazine might have seemed a controversial move, but the star of new film The Imitation Game has revealed her choice to bare all was in fact a protest against the media for its damaging attitude towards body image.

Knightley only agreed to pose topless for photographer Patrick Demarchelier on the proviso that the image would remain untouched by any editing software.  “I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters,” explained the actress. “That shoot was one of the ones where I said: ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.”

She continued: “I think women’s bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame. Our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape.”

It is not the first time the British actress has spoken out about her breasts being Photoshopped. She admitted to being “shocked” after seeing her bust enlarged on the film poster for 2004’s King Arthur, later telling a US magazine: “Those things certainly weren’t mine.” Later in 2006, Knightley posed nude for the cover of Vanity Fair with Scarlett Johansson and Tom Ford, to emphasise the contrasting demands fame made on men and women’s sexuality.

The September issue of Interview, where the photos appear, is entitled The Photographer’s Issue, with six photographers capturing their “ideal woman” on camera. Other subjects in the publication include Nicole Kidman, Naomi Campbell, Lea Seydoux, Amber Valletta and Daria Werbowy.

Rebekah Absalom