Film

‘Begin Again’ Director John Carney Has Made A Full Public Apology To Keira Knightley

"I'm ashamed of myself that I could say such things."

by Meg Watson  2 June 2016

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Off the back of one hell of a public shaming over the past day or so, John Carney (director of Begin Again, Once and Sing Street) has posted a long apology on Twitter. He stated that, since this week’s controversial interview with The Independent, he’s written to personally apologise to Keira Knightley, and now wants to set the record straight with fans and the industry at large.

“I said a number of things against Keira which were petty, mean and hurtful,” he wrote. “I’m ashamed of myself that I could say such things and I’ve been trying to account for what they say about me. In trying to pick holes in my own work, I ended up blaming someone else. That’s not just bad directing, that’s shoddy behaviour that I am not in any way proud of. It’s arrogant and disrespectful.”

He then went on to say Knightley was “nothing but professional and dedicated” while they worked together.

If you’re still catching up, this all comes after prior comments in which he unleashed on the star of his 2014 film Begin Again. Unprompted by the interviewer, Carney stated it was “a real problem that Keira wasn’t a singer and wasn’t a guitar player” and stated he would “never make a film with supermodels again”. “I don’t want to rubbish Keira, but you know, it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet.”

This, of course, brushes over the fact Knightly is actually not a supermodel, but a two-time Oscar nominee. The bizarrely condescending comments (combined with the fact he went on to clarify that working with her male co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine was great) led to much criticism including a number of public complaints from other directors Knightley has worked with.

Worse case scenario: the apology is a direct attempt to quell that backlash. Carney’s latest release, Sing Street, is currently making its premiere all around the world and the last thing that needs is a scandal around its director. Best case scenario: he’s sincere. It’s rare to see this kind of unreserved apology, in which people appear to matter-of-factly deal with their shit in the public eye, and the admission of insecurity in his own work is revealing.

As Jon Ronson would say, “We know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don’t?”