Knightley says focus on films, not figure

Knightley said she was "really proud" of "Atonement", her second collaboration with Wright after "Pride and Prejudice".

But she said she is highly critical of her own work and finds it difficult watching herself on the big screen.

"I'm my worst critic," she said. "If you really want me to cut my part to pieces, I absolutely can and I don't want to get to a day when I can't."

She said that one of the attractions of playing Cecilia was Wright's decision to use speech patterns and acting styles similar to those in the 1930s and 1940s, the period in which most of the narrative is set.

"I think the 30s and 40s, (it is a) speech pattern that we've pretty much lost now.

"It sort of reached the pinnacle of 'stiff-upper-lip-ness', and people very rarely do it in these films, people are very frightened of it."