Orlando Bloom has spoken out in defence of Keira Knightley following her ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ comments

Keira Knightley has been front and centre this season. And from the viral success of Netflix’s Black Doves to the Love Actually age controversy surrounding her character, the award-winning actress has been getting the world talking in 2025.

This month, it was her Pirates of the Caribbean days that made headlines, as the actress, now 39, spoke out about her conflicted feelings on the franchise in a recent interview.

Describing Pirates of the Caribbean as “the making and breaking” of her career in an interview with The Times, Knightley recalled: “I was seen as shit because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for.

“They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of,” she continued. “And they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”

Knightley’s surprising comments went viral online, and this week her Pirates of the Caribbean co-star Orlando Bloom weighed in on the situation, speaking out about the comments in a recent interview.

Bloom played Will Turner in the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies - the love interest to Knightley's Elizabeth Swann. And while the pair hasn't acted together on-screen since 2007, he didn’t hesitate to come to his former co-star’s defence.

“It was such a huge moment in time that is almost like…it feels almost like another lifetime now,” Bloom explained to Entertainment Weekly of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. “But it certainly was unique and, you know, I’m always grateful. But I definitely understand where Keira was coming from, and she does wonderful things…I have a lot of positive takeaways.”

Well, this is lovely.

We will continue to update this story.