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Keira Knightley can deal with stage fright

Aug 3, 2012, 10:01 GMT

Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley knows how to 'deal with' stage fright now.

The Oscar-nominated actress used to freeze on film sets, but she has now trained herself to cope with her crippling nerves and insists her time away from movies helped her immensely.

She said: 'I discovered that a lot of what I was suffering from on film sets was stage fright. It's easier for me now, and even if I do freeze, I know how to deal with it.'

Keira will next be seen in a movie adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel 'Anna Karenina' - alongside Jude Law and Aaron Johnson - and she admits she loved getting to grips with the complex character for the film.

The 27-year-old star - who recently got engaged to Klaxons musician James Righton - told the Daily Mail newspaper: 'She's a wonderful character, but very strange and complex. She is needy and manipulative and then there are sides of her that are vulnerable and innocent, and I sometimes think it's the innocence that pulls her down.

'She will not see reality and when she does, it destroys her. I found her a challenging person. I wanted to shake her and tell her to pull herself together.'