KNIGHTLEY AND MCAVOY ATONE FOR FALSE SINS

Atonement stars play lovers in the 1930s who suffer the consequences of a horrible lie.

Keira Knightley reunites with her Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright for Atonement, the story of forbidden love set in the summer of 1935 between a society maiden and her house boy played by James McAvoy.

Keira talks about her character not realizing that love was blooming right in her very own backyard.

“The reason I liked the character is she’s grown up. She’s not like a little girl kind of turning into a woman. She’s a woman, she knows who she is but she doesn’t know what direction to go in so she’s quite conflicted and doesn’t realize that actually she fancies Robbie who she’s grown up with all the time, she’s grown up with her entire life and sort of won’t admit there’s anything beyond the vague actually annoyance kind of brother sister relationship and it’s actually something quite different.”

Keira’s younger sister jealous of the relationship crushes their love by telling a tall tale that puts McAvoy’s Robbie at the scene of a rape which he didn’t commit. James talks about how telling a lie can spiral everything out of control.

“The story’s really about the repercussions of lying and the echoes and the ripples as that lie grows and how it affects in particular three people’s lives, a great deal more people’s lives but how that affects their lives over the course of 60 odd years. It’s a story that deals with not just the tragic romance that is the very simple heart of the story.”

Atonement based on the novel by Ian McEwan opens Friday, December 7th in theaters.