Taking her stand against domestic violence, Keira Knightley starred in a TV and cinema ad called “Cut,” for the charity Women’s Aid. In the two-minute ad, directed by Joe Wright (who directed her films Pride and Prejudice and Atonement), she is shown as an actress suffering a shocking assault by her partner. The ad ends with the tagline “Isn’t it time someone called ‘cut.’” All the participants, cast and crew, volunteered their time and talent. Said Knightley, “I wanted to take part in this advert for Women's Aid because while domestic violence exists in every section of society we rarely hear about it.” Knightley has also expressed perplexity in a 2013 interview at the use of “feminist” as a pejorative: “I think it’s great that the discussions are finally being allowed to be had [about feminism], as opposed to anybody mentioning feminism and everybody going, ‘Oh, fucking shut up.’ Somehow, [feminism] became a dirty word. I thought it was really weird for a long time, and I think it’s great that we're coming out of that.”
Keira Knightley came out as an atheist in the April 2012 issue of Interview Magazine, in which Knightley had the following exchange with director and fellow atheist David Cronenberg—
KNIGHTLEY: Absolutely extraordinary . . . If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything. You'd just ask for forgiveness and then you'd be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt.
CRONENBERG: Yeah, but you could always lie about being an atheist. I don't think an atheist could get elected in America right now.
KNIGHTLEY: No, I don't think they could either.
CRONENBERG: So you're not going to be able to run for office.
KNIGHTLEY: Damn.