The only thing she wanted for Pirates Of The Caribbean was a sword, Keira Knightley tells Steve Pratt, Now she's abandoned her corset for boyish outfits in the third swashbuckling adventure on the high seas.

KEIRA Knightley had a request for producers after the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie - she wanted to do more fighting. She says she didn't insist - "I don't think you can insist on anything" - but certainly did ask.

"I mean, on the first one they kept asking what I wanted for my character and I kept on saying, 'I want a sword' and I never got one, so in this one they gave me two. So I'm very lucky," she says.

As Pirates 2 and 3 were shot back-to-back, it must have been confusing at times. She needed to be fit, whatever she was doing. Like running, at full pelt, through the alleyways and across bridges in the seedy red lantern district of old Singapore, recreated on a massive sound stage at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

"It's part of the opening sequence of the third film," she explains. "And, without giving too much away, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are being chased by a whole gang of not very nice people. Great fun.

"And on Pirates 3 we have some new faces as well, including Chow Yun-Fat, who's an Asian pirate and he's absolutely wonderful."

When not filming, she was working on complex sword-fighting sequences. "I do a lot more sword-fighting these days and we have to work on them to get them perfect. So today, when I'm not required for a scene, I'll be working with the swords," she explains.

She did a couple of weeks training with the stunt team before filming began.

Knightley feels as though the last two years "had never happened" as she's been so involved filming Pirates 2 and 3 all the time. Not that she's complaining. "We've got these fantastic sets, it's pretty much exactly the same crew with a couple of additions, the same cast, same director, same writers, same producers obviously. So it really is like we never finished doing the first one and have just continued."

In Pirates 3, she abandons Elizabeth's corset for a pirate costume and oriental-style outfit. "I quite like corsets actually, it gives you a character," she says. "You feel so ladylike, but I feel a little more like me now because I'm in sort of boy's attire."

Surprisingly, perhaps, she prefers filming in Los Angeles to the Caribbean. "We go to some very beautiful places and some not-so-beautiful places. You end up getting island fever, especially if you're going to touristy islands. They're great for a couple of weeks and you go, 'oh look, there's the beach, this is lovely'.

"And then you go, 'okay, what else? I've done the beach, I've done the sea, I've read all my books, I can't do anything else'. So it gets a bit difficult, but it's beautiful and there are definitely much worse places. But I enjoy being in LA - I'm a city girl."

At 22, Knightley, who first came to audience's attention in Bend It Like Beckham, is a star on both sides of the Atlantic with King Arthur, Pride And Prejudice and the forthcoming Atonement on her CV. She's been working non-stop since the first Pirates, choosing "pretty much whatever catches my fancy," she says.

"If it's a film I think I'd want to see, then that's a good way to judge it. And if you meet the director and like them, then that's an even better way to judge it. It just depends. I don't pick by genre. I really don't have a plan, it's just what jumps out at me."

COMPETITION

WIN A FRAMED SIGNED POSTER OF KEIRA KNIGHTLEY

TO mark the arrival of Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End in cinemas, 7DAYS has a fantastic signed and framed Keira Knightley Pirates poster for one lucky winner.

To enter: just tell us the full name of the character she plays in the Pirates movies. Send your answer, together with your name and address, on a postcard to: Pirates Competition, 7DAYS, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. Closing date is Tuesday.