The 26-year-old actress plays Russian psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein in David Cronenberg‘s latest film, in which her character has an affair with psychoanalyst Carl Jung and in some scenes gets spanked by him.
Keira — whose previous roles include parts in Pirates of the Caribbean, Pride & Prejudice and Atonement — admits she struggled to get to grips with the role because she had no connection with Sabina’s life.
“This one was daunting because I didn’t understand it, I didn’t understand who she was or what she was going through … I really had no connection to her at all so it was about not trying to judge any of it, but to join the dots I suppose,” she said.
“So I took about four months just reading as much as I could.”