Pirates of the Caribbean star Keira Knightley says the role made her feel "caged" as she went from a tomboy to an "object of lust", whilst still in her teens.
The actress, 37, admitted she put too much pressure on herself during the start of her career and felt she was "never good enough".
Keira was just 17 when she took on the role as Elizabeth Swann in the Disney blockbuster that catapulted her career.
The breakout role followed her performance playing tomboy footballer Jules in Bend It Like Beckham in 2002.
The mum of two says the contrast between the characters made her feel "constrained" and "stuck".
"There’s a funny place where women are meant to sit, publicly, and I never felt comfortable with that. It was a big jolt. I was being judged on what I was projecting," the actress told Harper’s Bazaar U K.
"She [Elizabeth Swann] was the object of everybody’s lust. Not that she doesn’t have a lot of fight in her. But it was interesting coming from being really tomboyish to getting projected as quite the opposite.
"I felt very constrained. I felt very stuck."
Keira says the roles she picked after Pirates of the Caribbean were about "trying to break out of" that type of female character.
She added: "I didn’t have a sense of how to articulate it. It very much felt like I was caged in a thing I didn’t understand."
The actress went on to say she was very hard on herself in those early years.
She was so ambitious in trying to improve and get better, that it became exhausting.
Yet, when she looks back on her younger self Keira says she is in "awe".
Adding, she always found a way to get through anything.
Keira has also starred in Pride & Prejudice, Love Actually, The Duchess and Atonement.
The actress married musician James Righton in 2016 after the pair met in 2011.
Speaking of the time they met, Keira said to The Guardian: “We were very drunk, and he’s the kind of person who will be the brightest light in any room, whereas I’m the one who sits in the corner.”
They got married in Mazan, France, on May 3, 2013 and now share two daughters, Edie Knightley Righton and Delilah Knightley Righton, being born in 2015 and 2019, respectively.
Keira has previously opened up about her "hellish" second pregnancy due to suffering from sciatica at the time.
She was nauseous "for six months solid".
The April issue of Harper's Bazaar UK is on sale from 09 March.
