Keira Knightley forgot who she played in Star Wars: ‘I saw the film once'

Actor starred in the blockbuster when she was 12 years old

Keira Knightley appeared to forget her role in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, after being questioned about it during an interview.

Speaking to ComingSoon.net about her new movie, Misbehaviour, Knightley was asked to recall one of her earliest roles.

As the journalist spoke about the character Padme, a visibly confused Knightley asked: “Wait a minute… who did I play? Was I not Padme?”

The interviewer then informed Knightley that she had in fact played Sabe, one of Queen Amidala’s (Natalie Portman) most important handmaidens, who later becomes a decoy.

“Do you know, I saw the film once when… I think I was 12 when I did it, and I saw it the year after, and I’ve never seen it again,” Knightley said. “OK, so I was Sabe and I didn’t die.”

Film fans might be inclined to compare the incident to Gwyneth Paltrow’s notorious revelation that she’d forgotten she was in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

However, as Knightley points out, she has a slightly better excuse given the number of film roles she’s played in the 21 years since The Phantom Menace was released.

In March, she revealed that the headdress she wore for the role was so heavy that it gave her a headache.

“And I remember being in the background for such a long time that I'd actually fallen asleep,” she said.

“I was just sitting in a chair, and I was in the background, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I really remember that. But apart from that, I don't remember anything else about it.”

Her latest film, Misbehaviour, features an all-star cast including Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Keeley Hawes, Phyllis Logan, Lesley Manville, Rhys Ifans and Greg Kinnear.

It follows the story of the Women's Liberation Movement, which disrupted the Miss World Pageant in the 1970s.