Keira Knightley is 'less neurotic' now she's stopped Googling herself every day

'I found it difficult to step back from it and I was taking it very personally,' she said of reading negative comments about herself online

Keira Knightley at the premiere of Laggie at Toronto Film Festival 2014

The 25-year-old Keira Knightley, the actress claims, was “neurotic” and took everything far too seriously.

But now, at 29, that’s no longer the case, she says, because she’s given up Googling her own name.

"I found it difficult to step back from it and I was taking it very personally," she said of reading negative comments about her acting and appearance online.

"Partly because as an actor you don't want necessarily that thicker skin, and I couldn't figure how to be open emotionally and yet get a thick enough skin so that things didn't hurt."

The situation, however, has since far improved.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, she said: "I don't know if it was a chemical thing, a certain kind of realisation that it really didn't matter - and a sudden realisation of what you have control of and you don't. You suddenly have a moment where you go, actually I can't do anything about that.

"I don't Google myself - that was the problem before 25. Not that I did it all the time, but I certainly saw enough to say, 'Oh you shouldn't look'. I mean, you don't need to look, it is not helpful.

"You have to be quite vigilant about it. Again I think this is probably the same if you are on social media and if you do put anything out in the public, you are opening yourself up now to a lot of criticism and a lot of people telling you they hate you."

The usually conservative actress made headlines last month, after she appeared in Interview magazine entirely topless.

She stars opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, which will premiere at the London Film Festival on 8 October.