The Volcanic Island Lunch with Keira Knightley Words by Dan Keeling Photos by Juan Trujillo Andrades

ou may have heard of reputation as one of “Getting absolutely ’s lunch Hollywood’s most unassuming annihilated is probably not Y companion from her talents. Growing with her art the best idea,” she admits, hugely successful acting has been her passion for fine “I know some amazing people career, but as she sits gently wine, something she has who can be out for a whole sipping a glass of 125-year-old developed hand in hand with night, get an hour’s sleep and Madeira, debating her team, her husband, James Righton. look fine, but I look like I’ve West Ham United’s dubious “During filming for The been hit round the head.” chance of winning the premier Imitation Game my trailer It’s an unseasonally warm league, she’s as far from the became known as James’ bar, day in February when Keira cliché of a luvvie as it’s because he’d always stock it joins Noble Rot amongst the possible to be. From her 2002 up with great wine” she happy clatter of knives and debut in the footballing movie beams across the table at forks at Exmouth Market’s Bend It Like Beckham, to the Righton. “If we were on a Moro. With a fine selection of phenomenally popular Pirates night shoot, I’d have all the volcanic island to taste, of the Caribbean, followed by lads asking ‘is James’ bar we pull our first cork from a the excellent A Dangerous open?’” Knightley laughs, bottle of Suertes del Method and Oscar-nominated before admitting that vinous Marqués’ intense ‘Vidonia’, The Imitation Game, Keira over-indulgence isn’t the best and let the conversation Knightley has garnered a way to get into character. unfold…

Keira Knightley, Moro, London, 19th February 2016

Noble Rot 27 Noble Rot: What’s your KK: I think it probably is. It’s is Raoul’s. It’s this institution expensive or too cheap KK: He was lying on the floor most memorable wine not a wine that scares people from the seventies, and it’s either. For me, being able to of Berry Bros. shop, singing experience? off, it’s not haughty and open from six until three in have a discussion and hear the praises of wine. austere and it’s not silly the morning. I’d meet James stories about winemakers Keira Knightley: My money. It’s a reasonably priced after the show, at almost making interesting things is JR: I had to call everyone up gateway was ‘Les bottle that’s really fresh to midnight and it would be amazing. That’s the the next morning and Alpes’ from Belluard in drink. When some people think packed and we’d have steak wonderful thing about wine apologise. Savoie, made from the gringet of , they think and chips and a really big beside the enjoyment of , but my gateway red headachey, big, leathery... glass of red wine. It’s pretty drinking it: there’s a whole KK: You called everyone up was a Morgon ‘Côte du Py’ Whereas this is really quite much heaven, nothing fancy world behind it. that night – you wouldn’t stop from Foillard, drunk at Brawn light, quaffable, drinkable or complicated. And also The calling people up. on Columbia Road in London. wine with a really great Four Horsemen in Brooklyn NR: What was your most It was my moment of going bouquet and very moreish – I don’t know if you’d find a embarrassing wine NR: Was Charlie okay? “what the fuck is this? This is – and it doesn’t give you huge better wine list in the whole experience? amazing” and that’s always the hangovers. of New York. Everyone KK: He’s amazing – he’s going wine that I go back to; it’s my working there is great, they’ll KK: Oh, christ... probably the to run the North Korean favourite. It’s almost always NR: What are your favourite really talk to you about wine for our wedding. marathon, he’s absolutely 2013 ‘Archineri’ Etna Bianco, our Christmas wine, and you restaurants in London? if you want to have a We were in the South of Pietradolce, Mount Etna, Sicily, incredible. He fell off of a can pretty much guarantee conversation and they’ll send France with our good friend Italy mountain about ten years ago that even if you give it to KK: I eat here (Moro) quite a you in different directions. Charlie, and we got drunk “This is less aromatic than the Assyrtiko and the doctors had been someone who doesn’t really lot, Brawn, Barrafina... I love It’s one of those places I like and brought loads of bottles – but so light and balanced, it’s amazing. trying to save the leg ever like wine, they’ll suddenly be watching them cook. going where you are able to back to our house and I can imagine being amazingly happy since, but finally it was his with a bottle of this on a sunny lunchtime.” like, “ooh, wait a minute”. say “I don’t know much about continued drinking. In the choice. It was actually Even the label design and NR: How about your wine but I’m really morning we woke up and we to reassure him that it was Charlie and James Murphy bottle shape are unbelievably favourites in New York, when interested”, without them found an empty bottle of going to be fine. Then this one that got us into wine. aesthetically pleasing. you were in Thérèse Raquin going “Well, you’re a wanker”. Mouton Rothschild that we’d (Righton) and James Murphy on Broadway last year? been given among the turn up. They were both NR: Talking of mountains, we NR: So it’s quite a crowd- NR: Do you think there’s empties, that at some point sitting at the end of the table, had your recent film Everest pleaser? KK: My favourite place to go been an emergence of more we hadn’t realised we’d crashing into things. I have on in the office at Rotters HQ open-minded, wine-focused opened... No memory of never seen him that drunk the other day. restaurants over the last few drinking it. Probably the – and I’ve seen him pretty years? most amazing bottle of wine fucking drunk. KK: That must have been fun. that I will ever be given, ever. KK: Yeah, I think there were James Righton: We’d NR: It made us a bit anxious. many people like me who NR: So it wasn’t when you stopped off at Berry Bros to It’s quite dark, isn’t it? possibly would have been met your husband and James meet Charlie and we’d been frightened before because Murphy from LCD kicked out because we were KK: It is quite dark. When I they didn’t know loads about Soundsystem for dinner after so drunk. was doing it we got obsessed wine and would have just the Noble Rot tasting of Jura gone for wine on a price point wine back in issue 4? – something that wasn’t too KK: Ha! Our friend Charlie “ It’s one of those places 2014 ‘Estate’ Assyrtiko, Argyros, was having his leg amputated Santorini, Greece the next day, and so a few of I like going where you “This is really salty, and bracing – the us were taking him to his taste is something to really grab onto. are able to say “I don’t I’ve only been to the Greek islands once, favourite restaurant, but I loved it.” Locanda Locatelli, know much about wine but I’m really interested”, without them going “Well, you’re a wanker”.”

28 Noble Rot Noble Rot 29 James Righton say to any wine person that same pub, even if they’d your favourite grape is never really watched football gringet, they think that you in their life. You’d get there know a lot about wine! at six or seven in the morning and get a mug of tea and a NR: Going back to the fried breakfast and watch beginning of your career, Premiership football. were you actually any good at football when you did Bend It NR: What’s been your most Like Beckham? surreal experience since starting acting in films? KK: No, I was fucking terrible. In my teens I really KK: Probably the most loved it and I got into it even surreal was when I was 19 more when I went over to and filming in a strip bar in America and spent a lot of downtown east LA. My mum time living there. I was so came to stay with me, and she 2013 ‘Vidonia’, Suertes del imagine exactly what that couldn’t go, day in, day out, 2013 ‘Contadino’, Frank homesick and I felt like I arrived straight from the Marqués, Tenerife, Spain & 2013 Cornelissen, Mount Etna, Sicily, ‘Táganan’ Blanco, Envínate, would feel like”. But no, I and have to create somebody Italy needed to grab hold of airport to this strip bar where Tenerife, Spain don’t need to think “what who’s that highly strung for something completely one of the strippers, who was “I like the idea of Cornelissen wines, “The Vidonia’s got a really funky nose, would that be like?” – I didn’t 12-14 hours a day and be able but I don’t like drinking this one as much English – so many English a huge fan of Pirates of the it’s incredibly expressive. Both are quite imagine James stuck up a to just come home. as I’d like to. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t people do this, there are pubs Caribbean, was getting me to intense wines that smell like they’ve been mountain. [laughs] think I’d necessarily choose it either.” in Santa Monica, in LA where sign her tits. grown near a volcano. Bizarre! The NR: How about playing you can go at nine in the Vidonia smells a lot smokier, which is an Left to right: James Righton, amazing thing, but I think I prefer the NR: Does playing some parts Sabina Spielrein in A Dan Keeling, Keira Knightley and morning and watch football. NR: Do you get many slightly more understated Táganan – affect you more than others? Dangerous Method? Mark Andrew I love it, everyone at the psychotic fans? lovely.” with watching Everest KK: Yeah, if they’re deeply KK: No, that didn’t rub off. documentaries. They’re neurotic characters and I’m I think because that’s such an lunatics, the people who go up having to do them day in, day extreme psychosis, you kind there. out, then that will not leave of have to prepare it – I did a particularly quickly. lot of research and went: NR: How do you get into the “okay, I don’t have any headspace to play that kind of NR: Are you talking about personal experience of that” part? the repetition of Broadway so that didn’t come home. in particular? I think I would have been put KK: That one was fairly easy. away if that had come home. When you hear that story – KK: Well, that was an But wine always helps at the and I met Jan and her interesting one because we end of the day, to make sure it daughter – you just go “that’s also had a very, very young doesn’t come home. In New the biggest nightmare that child, so the combination of York we found a great place anyone can imagine”. So it’s playing a psychotic maniac to buy wines called Chambers not that you need to imagine eight times a week and Street Wines, a great wine yourself in there, it’s looking after a baby and not shop which we always filled something that’s very getting any sleep was tough. up the backstage fridge with visceral, that is very easy to But I think Anna Karenina a couple of interesting wines go “Oh my god, yes I can was the toughest one. You from. I found out that if you

30 Noble Rot Noble Rot 31 (top left) 2012 Patrimonio ‘Morta Maio’, Antoine Arena, Corsica, France “I get lots of dark cherries. I love the smell, it smells so sweet. It’s sort of like the Jura thing, where it smells like it’s going to be enormous and it ends up being really fresh. It’s really good.”

(pictured in opening photo, p.26) 2011 Cannonau di Sardegna ‘Riserva Franzisca’, Giovanni Montisci, Sardinia, Italy “I really like this, even though there’s a vaguely jammy thing going on. It’s a lovely fresh, herbal wine.”

32 Noble Rot Noble Rot 33 1890 Verdelho, d’Oliveiras, NR: If you had the choice of “ The Vidonia’s got a really Madeira, Portugal playing any character in funky nose, it’s incredibly “Wow! It’s really floral. Even a minute history, who would you most expressive. Both are later, the flavour is still there in your mouth like to play and why? quite intense wines that – it goes on and on. And being from smell like they’ve been 1890 adds another dimension to the grown near a volcano. experience. It’s a really interesting, KK: Josephine Bonaparte. complex, extraordinary thing!” Bizarre!” She was imprisoned during The Terror and she should biggest question of “what’s have had her head chopped the point?” In film, or art, off. There was this amazing what really interests me is bit of history about the going “I don’t like you, but French aristocrats, that they how can I understand you?” weren’t allowed to cry or Empathy isn’t something show any emotion but they that comes naturally to had very intense love affairs anyone, necessarily. I don’t because they were all about mean this in a negative way, to die. So there are stories of KK: With films you’re fucking but it’s easy to find empathy the pairings up and the with people’s dreams. It’s a with a sick child or a woman goings on within the central place where a lot of people who’s pregnant and in an prison in Paris. And she was who are very lonely can go isolated experience (like in the only one who was allowed and find solace. And that Everest). It’s not so easy to to cry – this was pre- means that there can be find empathy with a fucking Napoléon, so she was times where they can get crazy person on the street Josephine de Beauharnais at confused between fact and who’s wanking in front of you this point. I think that’s an fiction. Like Pride and and screaming at you. But it’s amazing thing. And there’s Prejudice, that character is a an actor’s job to do that, to try this whole chain of letters person that so many women and understand. that Napoléon wrote to feel like they want to be, I don’t agree with rightwing Josephine when he was away or who they want to know politics but it’s my job to at war and when he was and sometimes people can understand why people do, coming back he would say think that you are one of your and I think that we can be “don’t wash, I’m coming characters – so that can be more empowered by that, home”. I’m also fascinated quite tricky. like “I can understand that with the Second World War. you’re afraid, and therefore When you put somebody NR: If aliens arrived on you are acting this way,” so at a point where literally earth, what film would you the question is “How can we every moment could show them to explain what make you feel less afraid?” definitely be their last, how you do? Or (in the case of Method) you live is so much more “I can understand that you intense. When you’re KK: I don’t know! Let’s go are incredibly sexually someone who deals with with A Dangerous Method... frustrated, and what you’re drama it’s much more It’s a very strange thing, doing is not okay, but I can interesting; the way you say because what I really enjoy try and understand where what you’re going to do, doing isn’t necessarily the this is coming from in order to or where you’re going to go, stuff that makes people feel prevent it happening again”. is so much more intense. good, but what poses the I think that’s what art is.

34 Noble Rot Noble Rot 35 Moro’s Squid with asparagus, peas and mint

The Spanish adore seafood and local fishmongers almost always have an amazing selection of fresh squid, prawns and a wide variety of clams on offer. This dish is an Andalucian tapa eaten at the beginning of spring, when these amazing vegetables start to appear in the market. It is our celebration of spring and summer, and is also one of our favourite seafood dishes. Squid can be replaced with cuttlefish, if you prefer, just add 10 minutes to the cooking time.

Ingredients 3 medium squid (roughly the To prepare the squid, cut the Add the peas and asparagus size of your hand), cleaned bodies and wings into small to the pan and cook 4 tbsps olive oil strips approximately 1cm uncovered over a higher heat ½ large onion, roughly wide and 4cm long. Cut the for 5-10 minutes more, until chopped tentacles in half or into the vegetables are tender and 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced quarters, depending on their the juices run thick. ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds size. 1 bay leaf (preferably fresh) Stir in the mint and the extra ½ tsp sweet paprika In a medium pan, warm the virgin olive oil and serve 150ml white wine olive oil over a medium heat. straight away. 200ml water Add the chopped onion and a 250g asparagus, trimmed and pinch of salt and fry gently sliced into 2cm pieces for 5-10 minutes, stirring 250g shelled peas occasionally. When the onion 3 level tbsps fresh mint, begins to turn golden and roughly chopped caramelise, add the garlic, 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil fennel seeds and bay leaf and fry for 2 more minutes.

Add the prepared squid and paprika, stir well and add the wine and water. Cover the pan, bring the contents to a simmer then turn the heat down low. Depending on the thickness of the pieces of squid, cook for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally, until they begin to tenderise.

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