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Hollywood's Keira Knightley on how her Glasgow mum's work ethic made her the star she is today

Hollywood A-lister Keira Knightley says her fierce work ethic is all down to her Scots mum.

The actress has had Glaswegian Sharman Macdonald’s mantra “get better, work harder, keep going” drummed into her.

And if it wasn’t for that mantra, Keira wouldn’t even be here.

Back in the 80s, Sharman and actor husband Will had a boy, Caleb, and she was desperate for another child but couldn’t afford it.

Pirates of the Caribbean star Keira said: “She could only have a second child that was me because she wrote a play and it was called When I was a Girl I used to Scream and Shout. Because of the money from that, she could have another baby.

“And I think she’s always said, ‘Live your life like the title of that play. Scream and shout until people hear you.’

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“I’ve lived by that and I continue to try to scream and shout and try to say, ‘I am here and I have ideas and I want to work and I want to get better.’

“I think ultimately she has always gone, ‘Get better, work harder, keep going.’”

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It was 67-year-old Sharman who urged Keira to take on her latest role, in what could be a standout in the actress’s already glittering career.

Colette is about the ground-breaking French novelist, whose provocative debut - falsely credited to her husband – becomes the toast of Paris, triggering a battle for identity, equality and self-determination at the dawn of the feminist age.

The much older Willy gets Colette to write the four Claudine stories under his name. But as they shock society, she wants to be recognised for her own talents.

Colette’s best known work is the novella Gigi and she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1948.

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But it’s the battle between Colette and her husband Henry Gauthier-Villars, known as Willy, that is the basis of the fascinating movie, which will be shown next month at the London Film Festival before being released in cinemas in January.

Keira, 33, said: “I knew a little bit. I knew Gigi, the musical, and then my mum had been obsessed with Colette. She read all of the Claudine novels and that hugely influenced her work, so I was aware of that.

“My mum was thrilled when the part was offered. She was like, ‘Yes! Go on.’”

It’s one of Keira’s most daring roles – as well as sex scenes involving both sexes, the actress dresses up as a man.

She said: “I instantly felt connected to this story, partly because of the fact of Willy taking credit for her work, of her in a way being silenced because somebody else was literally stealing her words. I thought that was very relevant.”

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Like most women, Keira has sometimes had men taking credit for her ideas.

She said: “Of course there has been times where I’ve put an idea out there and nobody’s listened and then five seconds later, a guy’s put the same idea out there and everyone’s gone, ‘Wow great idea!’

“That’s what happens to women all over the world.”

Keira sees the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements as a work in progress and she wants to make sure they don’t fizzle out. She added: “There is a hunger now for strong, female voices and I think that’s great.

“We just need to make sure that it’s not a flash in the pan. We need to make sure that it’s proper change.”

Whether it’s Pride and Prejudice, the Pirates movies, Atonement, A Dangerous Mind, Anna Karenina or The Imitation Game, period dramas have run through Keira’s career and she makes no excuse for continuing to be drawn to them.

She said: “I get offered period pieces and I go, ‘Oh no, I can’t, I can’t do another one.' And then I go, ‘But I really like them.’ I think it’s very difficult when it’s just the best characters I’ve been offered.”

Colette is one of a string of films Keira has waiting for release. They include The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, post-World War II drama The Aftermath and spy whistle-blower thriller Official Secrets.

Keira’s lifestyle is, of course, light years away from that of most of us but even she has to juggle work with being a mum.

And she said she can only do it thanks to “a village of help”.

The star postponed Colette for a year to spend time with daughter Edie, now three.

She said she can work long hours, in different countries thanks to her musician husband James Righton, 35, “putting his life on hold”, as well as help from Sharman and a nanny.

Keira said: “My husband has been amazing. He’s been travelling with me since we had the kid. He’s largely put his life on hold to make sure that I’m still at work and that we’re keeping together as a family unit. I’m super lucky, I can afford childcare.

“They say it takes a village to raise a child. It does and it takes a village to keep a woman at work as well.”

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