Keira Knightley has said working with fellow mother Carrie Coon on their upcoming film Boston Strangler helped her cope with juggling her career and motherhood.
The actress said she was “fortunate" that they “had each other’s backs".
Knightley, who stars as investigative journalist Loretta McLaughlin in the Hulu crime drama, shares daughters Edie, seven, and Delilah, three, with her musician husband James Righton.
She said of Coon at a recent press conference: “I felt very fortunate, particularly with Carrie, because we’re both mothers of two small children.
“There is something very nice about coming on to a set and just looking into another woman’s eyes and having total understanding – that was just a joy."
She continued: “We could both look at each other through our completely sleepless eyes and be like: ‘Alright mate. I’ve got your back.’"
Coon, who plays Knightley’s character’s colleague Jean Cole in the upcoming film, shares two children with her husband, Tracy Letts – a son Haskell, born in 2018 and a daughter they welcomed in 2021.
Knightley has previously been candid about her struggles with motherhood.
In 2018, she wrote a candid account of her daughter’s birth, titled The Weaker Sex, in the anthology Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies, curated by Scarlett Curtis.
“Birth is just the beginning of it,” she continued in the FT.
“Birth, yes. And then, what happens afterwards? Then the sleep deprivation, and the sleep deprivation when your body is ripped to pieces and you’re still trying to heal.
"And you’ve got a small being that is entirely reliant on you. And we live in a society where you’re meant to pretend that you’re able to do that, and you’re fine, and you’re on top of it.”
The first trailer for The Boston Strangler was released last month.
The thriller is based on a true story of the 13 women who were murdered in the Boston area in the early 1960s.
Knightley and Coon’s characters play reporters digging into the infamous perpetrator of the crimes to uncover his identity.
