Keira Knightley covers the new issue of Violet, although I’m pretty sure this photoshoot was done MONTHS ago. Probably last year. Because Keira is super-pregnant these days and these photos show her tiny little waist. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Keira had a big baby announcement in the next week or so. Her due date is likely any day now. As for the interview, Keira had some interesting things to say about feminism and female characters and woman-oriented storytelling. She talked a lot about all of that throughout the promotional tour for The Imitation Game – it’s her cause, and it’s a good cause to have. We need younger actresses openly discussing the fact that Hollywood needs to refocus and have more stories for, by and starring women.

Women in film: “Where are the female stories? Where are they? Where are the directors, where are the writers? It’s imbalanced, so given that we are half the cinema-going public, we are half the people [who] watch drama or watch anything else, where is that? So yes, I think the pay is a huge thing, but I’m actually more concerned over the lack of our voices being heard.”

Feminism: “I don’t know what happened through the ’80s,’90s, and ’00s that took feminism off the table, that made it something that women weren’t supposed to identify with and were supposed to be ashamed of. Feminism is about the fight for equality between the sexes, with equal respect, equal pay, and equal opportunity. At the moment we are still a long way off that.”

Playing Joan Clarke in The Imitation Game: “I think it is interesting that for women in film the problems they face are generally put into the sphere of home and family and not into the workplace. Joan’s real struggles were to get her rightful ‘place at the table,’ and then once she was there, equal pay, which she never came close to.”

[From Style.com]

I like that Keira manages to discuss feminism and woman-centered storytelling without it coming across like… Patricia Arquette. You know? Bless Arquette for putting her views out there and starting a conversation about equal pay in the middle of the Oscars, but Arquette’s wording and phrasing alienated a lot of potential allies. Keira’s comments seem to be a reflection of the need for more women – of all colors and sexual orientations – to be brought into the storytelling fold.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Violet.