This seems a bit harsh.
John Carney is an Irish film director behind films such as Once and the recent hit Sing Street.
It seems, though, that he’d rather forget about one of his other films, 2014’s Begin Again starring Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Carney did not hold back in his criticism of the actress, stating he would “…never work with supermodels again”.
Knightley played a musician in the film, but Carney said her lack of ability hampered the film:
“I think the real problem was that Keira wasn’t a singer and wasn’t a guitar player and it’s very hard to make music seem real if it’s not with musicians. And I think the audience struggled a little bit with that in Begin Again. And as much as I tried to make it work, I think that she didn’t quite come out as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter. So I really wanted to work with musicians and actors that could play their instruments properly and sing and stuff like that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227m6uLCRtU
Carney was full of praise for Ruffalo, describing him as “fantastic”, and only had good things to say about Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine, who had a key role in the movie.
“Adam Levine is a joy to work with, and actually quite unpretentious and not a bit scared of exposing himself on camera and exploring who he is as an individual,” Carney said.
But he laid even further into Knightley’s performance, saying:
“Keira has an entourage that follows her everywhere so it’s very hard to get any real work done, and so I was very ready to come back to Ireland and make films that nobody cared about who was in it or any of that crap.”
The director’s criticism is not going down well.
John Carney has made three consecutive romantic comedy-dramas about musicians, but it's Keira Knightley who's afraid to take risks? Okay.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) May 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/jowrotethis/status/736944757570605056
John Carney comes across as very unpleasant. If you don't rate someone, just don't work with them again. https://t.co/iaFctTjfPp
— Kevin Donnellan (@Kevind04) May 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/kpfallon/status/737009771128184836
So 2 time Oscar nominee Keira Knightley's awful but waling Lynx can Adam Levine is a joy? Okay, I get it.https://t.co/5gW4WFs9xW
— Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann) May 29, 2016
