Keira's quest for reel men

Although still two months shy of her 20th birthday, Keira Knightley has worked with some of the world's most famous leading men - including Oscar hopefuls Johnny Depp and Clive Owen, plus heart-throb Orlando Bloom.

But she has dubbed fast-rising star Matthew MacFadyen - of TV's Spooks - the most 'manly' of the lot.

We are chatting in a restaurant halfway up Main Street in Park City, Utah, where Keira's new film, a gripping psychological thriller she made with Adrien Brody called The Jacket, received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The talk turned to her film Pride And Prejudice, due out in the autumn, with MacFadyen playing Mr Darcy. 'It was great working with him because he's one of the few manly men,' she said. 'He's not a pretty boy - he's a man. It was such a lovely experience because Matthew is so romantic as Mr Darcy.' So what's the opposite of a manly man? A girly man? 'No, a pretty boy would do it,' she laughed. 'But pretty boys are equally good - it's just nice to have a variation.'

How could we categorise other famous chaps? What about Leonardo DiCaprio? 'No, he's not a manly man. He was a pretty boy earlier on, but he's growing into something really interesting.' Mick Jagger? 'Now he's very, very sexy. So is Clive Owen, and so is Viggo Mortensen.' Orlando Bloom? 'No, he's not a manly man. He's not quite a pretty boy, either. He's in between, I'd say. 'But Brad Pitt, I think, has grown into a manly man - and you've got George Clooney, who's really manly!' But her favourite was clear: 'Matthew MacFadyen! He's the one waving the flag for the manly man among the younger guys. He's the business, he really is. I mean, you can't take your eyes off him,' she declared, with a mock swoon.

If Keira's theory holds true for the opposite sex, there must be girly girls, and womanly women. In that case, The Jacket provides Keira with her first womanly woman role. For the role of Jackie, a depressed young woman, who meets Brody's damaged Gulf War Marine, director John Maybury had her listen to Courtney Love, watch Marlene Dietrich movies and footage of Edie Sedgwick.

For a bedroom scene, she and Brody were given slides to study of work by expressionist painter Egon Schiele. 'Suddenly, I wasn't worried about being naked; I was part of a painting, a visual canvas,' said Keira.

Even so, the American censors slapped the film with a high rating because of an exposed nipple. She laughed: 'It's fascinating that a glimpse of a breast can make it go up a rating, as opposed to scenes of somebody being pumped full of drugs and slammed alive into a morgue drawer. 'Personally, I always find the violence much more shocking than the sex.'

Keira said she would not do a sex scene unless she was 100 per cent comfortable with it. For instance, in her new film Domino, she was supposed to do a lap dance. 'I could do the top half, but not the bottom,' she says. 'I'd had two lap dancing lessons and visited strip clubs. But I got too scared and got a double. I couldn't bend in the way you're meant to bend.'

Keira is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and playwright Sharman Macdonald, so she's savvy about the business. 'I'm not stupid. I know that my face has got me jobs - that's just the way it is. 'But what happens is that you sit for two-and-a-half hours in front of a mirror every morning (on a set) covering up your imperfections, so you get very aware of them. 'And frankly, it's stupid, and it's a horrible way to be, because what you are is a w*****. 'I want to be an actress, but it's only a job.'

She conceded that she has 'lucked out', but acknowledges she has much to learn as an actress. 'I want to do theatre, and yes, somewhere small, such as the Tricycle in North London. If they found me something, I'd go there.' But the stage must wait. In the spring, she starts filming parts two and three of Pirates Of The Caribbean.