Begin Again director slams Keira Knightley’s acting skills

He said that the actress had an “entourage that followed her everywhere” on the set, which made it difficult “to get any real work done”.

“I think the real problem was that Keira wasn’t a singer and wasn’t a guitar player and it’s very hard to make music seem real if it’s not with a musician. And I think the audience struggled a little bit with that in Begin Again. And as much as I tried to make it work I think that she didn’t quite come out as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter.

“So, I really wanted to work with musicians and actors that could play their instruments properly and sing and stuff like that,” Carney said.

However, Carney did praise Knightley’s co-stars, calling Ruffalo “a fantastic actor” and admitting he was impressed by Levine, who made his film debut in “Begin Again.”

According to Carney, Levine was not pretentious or “scared of exposing himself on camera”.

“I think that that’s what you need as an actor; you need to not be afraid to find out who you really are when the camera’s rolling,” the filmmaker said.

“Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that. And working with the kids (on Sing Street) and real instruments there was no hiding going on. It really was a bit of a journey of self-discovery for the actors in ‘Sing Street’ and that appeals to me.

“So, it’s not like I hate the Hollywood thing but I like to work with curious, proper film actors as opposed to movie stars.

“I don’t want to rubbish Keira, but you know it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet and I certainly don’t think she was ready for on that film.”

Since her “Bend it like Beckham” days, Knightley has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, including Best Actress for “Pride and Prejudice” and Best Supporting Actress for The “Imitation Game”.