Keira Knightley Personifies Love in "Collateral Beauty"

Two-time Oscar-nominee Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice, The Imitation Game) is the epitome of Love, in New Line Cinema's heartwarming drama, Collateral Beauty.

In the film, Howard (Will Smith), a successful New York advertising executive retreats from life after suffering a great tragedy. While his concerned friends try desperately to reconnect with him, he seeks answers from the universe by writing letters to Love, Time and Death. But it’s not until his notes bring unexpected personal responses that he begins to understand how these constants interlock in a life fully lived, and how even the deepest loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.

Howard’s most recent letter to Love said simply, “Goodbye,” and it’s now incumbent upon Keira Knightley’s character, Amy, to make him realize that giving up on love is not an option. Quite the contrary; this is when love matters most. Says Knightley of the role, “She’s highly empathetic to Howard’s grief, empathy being a part of love, and talks to him in emotional terms that he can feel. But she wants him to understand that love isn’t just the part where everything is great; it’s also the unbelievable pain you feel when something is taken away, and that in no way diminishes it or ends it.”

“It’s such an intriguing idea, and how can you say no to being the personification of love?” she asks.

The actress was enjoying a rare bit of down time and not actively seeking a film role when Collateral Beauty came her way. “I have a very young child and had come to the end of a grueling job and didn’t really want to work at the time,” she remembers. “I gave the script to my mom, mostly so she would say ‘No, don’t do that, stay at home with the baby and chill out.’ But she read it and phoned me in tears. She said nothing had made her feel like that for a long time. I think it speaks to something that we’re all frightened of and yet there’s an incredible feeling of relief and optimism within that. What people will experience individually I don’t know, but I was very moved by it. Plus, I didn’t know where it was going, and that was exciting.”

Opening across the Philippines on January 4, 2017, Collateral Beauty is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.