Keira Knightley says her famous sex scene in ‘Atonement’ will never live up to the raunchy new TV series ‘Rivals’.
The 39-year-old actress starred in the 2007 film alongside James McAvoy, with the movie memorably featuring them romping up against a bookcase.
But she has now said the Disney+ series ‘Rivals’ – based on a Jilly Cooper novel and which came out last month – had an “extraordinary” amount of sex that meant there was no comparison between it and ‘Atonement’.
She told The Sunday Times about the show – which stars Emily Atack, David Tennant and Danny Dyer: “I loved every second of it. I thought they were all brilliant. The bonking is extraordinary.
“The most famous sex scene that I’ve done, and the one that worked the best, was in ‘Atonement’.
“That was brilliant because it was storyboarded.”
She added about male nudity in ‘Rivals’: “It’s really upped. There’s a lot of bottoms. It’s amazing.
“And actually, female nudity has gone down quite a lot, which is interesting.”
Keira was speaking to promote her upcoming Netflix series ‘Black Doves’, which sees her and actress Sarah Lancashire, 60, play a spy and spymaster.
The actress is an agent for the Black Doves group, headed by Sarah’s character, and when her lover Jason, played by Andrew Koji, 37, is assassinated she is told her super-secret status may have been compromised.
It’s written by Joe Barton, 39, and Keira is listed as an executive producer on the show.
Keira also opened up about the new parameters she has set for her work commitments after having children.
The mother of Edie, nine and Delilah, five, who she has with her musician husband James Righton, 41, added: “I couldn’t go job to job (abroad) now. It wouldn’t be in any way fair on them, and I wouldn’t want to.
“I’ve chosen to have children, I want to bring them up, so I’ve had to take a major step back.”