Keira Knightley was "set up for life" by her teenage stardom.

The 39-year-old actress rose to prominence in the early 2000s with roles in 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and admitted that even though she had to give up all anonymity, she is still "grateful" for the intense period of time because she earned enough money to become financially secure.

She told the LA Times: "It's very brutal to have your privacy taken away in your teenage years, early 20s, and to be put under that scrutiny at a point when you are still growing.

"Having said that, I wouldn't have the financial stability or the career that I do now without that period. I had a five-year period between the age of 17 and 21-ish, and I'm never going to have that kind of success again. It totally set me up for life.

"Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost. Knowing the cost, could I, in all good conscience, say to my kid, you should do that? No. But am I grateful for it? Yes. But then that's life, isn't it?"

The 'Black Doves' star managed to survive Hollywood-level fame at such a young age and explained that is likely because her family "weren't profiting" from her career in any way.

She said: "I had a very stable family background. I always had friends and family that weren't profiting from it. They had no skin in the game. I had a separate life from the industry, and I've maintained that. That's been very important. If you don't have that stability, and instead what you've got is a load of people who are making money off you, and they've got a vested interest in keeping you going, even if you need to stop, that's a whole other scenario. I was supported and told that I was allowed to stop at any time."