The British actress, who releases “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” this month, rails against classics like Cinderella or The Little Mermaid for their unfeminist messages.

Keira Knightley is a Disney icon thanks to “Pirates of the Caribbean” and her new role as the Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”, but the actress has not hesitated to rebel against studio classics such as “Cinderella” or “The Little Mermaid” for its unfeminist messages.

The British performer appeared last week on Ellen DeGeneres’ show and she commented that she had forbidden her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter from watching the company’s classic titles.

“Cinderella” is banned. She waits for a rich guy to come and rescue her. No! Do it yourself, obviously. I love “The Little Mermaid” and the songs are great, but don’t give up your own voice for a man,” she said then to the applause of the audience.

However, those words generated some controversy and found numerous criticisms on the Internet, considering that these stories are fantasies and that parents should be the ones to educate and discuss the content with their children.

When asked about it in a meeting with the media in the US, Knightley did not shy away and emphasized her feelings: “It is. that we teach our children is very important and there are certain messages that I don’t want my daughter to take home.

“In my house we really enjoy current Disney movies, like “Moana”, “Frozen” or “Inside Out”. But we don’t allow those I mentioned,” he added.

“The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”, premiering in Spain on October 31 and on November 2 in the US, is a luxurious blockbuster based on the fairy tale written by ETA Hoffman in 1816, versioned by Alexandre Dumas and adapted to ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston (his replacement when filming new scenes, since the Swedish filmmaker was not available), the film has a cast that also includes Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Eugenio Derbez and Richard E. Grant, among others.

“She’s probably different than I imagined her as a child,” she admitted with her characteristic smile.

“Logically, there is not much documentation about the character. I watched a lot of ballet videos on YouTube and I focused on the tune of the most famous part of “The Nutcracker” to incorporate it into the character’s laugh. And I invented a very sweet and mellow. I wanted to make this film because it was going to allow me to act very foolishly,” he declared.

The 33-year-old actress explained that Disney offered her the role of her and that she did not hesitate since she had just done “Thérèse Raquin” in the theater, a very dark play by Émile Zola.

In “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” a 14-year-old girl named Clara (Foy), who has been hit hard by the death of her mother, travels to a magical world filled with gingerbread soldiers and an army of mice. .

“The message of the movie is that any girl can save the world. She is the one who goes on an adventure and rescues everyone. There were no stories like that in my childhood. She is not the princess waiting to be rescued in the tower. She is an engineer and she does the dirty work herself,” he said.

And since the plot of the film talks about dreams, Knightley did not hesitate to list what “miracles” she would like to see become a reality.

“Real equality? Reversing climate change? Reversing” Brexit “? Yes, those three things,” she said, before delving into the issue of gender inequality.

“You have to have hope that things are going to get better. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been a mother. In England, women (referring to health personnel) earn 23 percent less than men for doing the same job. Improving that It would be a positive start,” he concluded.