IN LITTLE over a year, Teddington lass Keira Knightley has gone from promising young British actress to being the talk of Tinseltown, with her name being bandied around for just about every new project being commissioned.

Having held her own alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, in last year's Pirates of the Caribbean, she is now taking on the coveted role of Guinevere in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced blockbuster, King Arthur and her workload shows no sign of letting up. Next up, is a darker character piece, called The Jacket, which co-stars Oscar winner Adrien Brody and has been produced by George Clooney, followed by her high-profile casting as Elizabeth Bennet in the big screen version of Pride and Prejudice.

Oh and she is also set to reprise her role as Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, which is hoping to reunite the team which made the original such a winning formula.

Yet, in spite of being the subject of near-constant media speculation about her private life, and the fact that she has recently made the cover of Vanity Fair, the 19-year-old shows no sign of the strains of super-stardom.

Talking about her career at a recent junket for King Arthur, she gushed excitedly: "It is amazing because throughout my life what I've loved doing is watching movies. I love reading books about movies, I love the escapism of film and I love the stories.

"So it's incredible for me to be involved with them as much as I am, from the very first stitch in a costume to the end product.

"That's what I find really incredible and that's what I always wanted to spend my time doing. Acting is a profession where you're hot one minute, and not hot the next, and that's totally cool with me. That's what I find most fascinating and exciting about it that it can be gone in a puff of smoke."

She even takes suggestions that she has become a symbol for Britain in her stride, laughing as she notes: "I love where I'm from, you know, I'm very much a Londoner. And I think the more time I spend away from England, the more I love it. But I don't know if I'd say I was a British symbol. It is very strange seeing yourself in magazines. It means you can't buy them, which is really annoying.

"And I don't read any of the papers. I spend most of my time working and when you're on a film set it's like being in a protective bubble, which is fantastic.

"So I haven't really been overly aware of it. Honestly, if I'm on a billboard, I usually have to walk past about five of them before I actually figure out that it's me staring back at myself. Or I say, God, she looks familiar'."

Not that Keira has much time to buy too many magazines, despite being regularly seen around the shops of Richmond, close to her childhood home in Teddington, for she is almost always away filming.

For King Arthur she was forced to spend three months practising boxing, weightlifting, axe fighting, sword fighting and horse riding, in a specially-devised boot camp for all the principal cast members.

And she maintains it provided the ideal preparation for her version of Guinevere, which is a very different take on the character.

When audiences first see her, for instance, she is in prison, while, by the end of the film, she has emerged as a gutsy warrior queen, who is more than capable of handling herself on the battlefield.

Keira admits to spending a lot of time with director, Antoine Fuqua, talking about ways in which she could make her character different.

"We did decide that she was leading an attack and got captured and put in jail, where she got tortured as well," she explained. "And I thought she was high up in society, which gave me more to play. Suddenly, this person who had been fighting against the knights since she was born, finds herself amongst them and she has to think about what's the best action to take. Should she kill them all, or does she use them to her advantage?

"So she chooses to use Arthur to her advantage. It's a cold way of looking at it, but there is a bit of love as well. She's a character who would not fall in love with somebody unless they were beneficial to her cause. What we're looking at is Guinevere as a guerrilla leader she's fighting for an occupied nation.

"The interesting thing to note is that there is not a single innocent character in this movie. They've all done things that are repulsive and disgusting and each one is probably haunted by that. But it makes them more interesting individuals".

Having made a name for herself as the romantic leading lady, however, it seems Keira is keen not to become pigeonholed.

Aside from the makeover given to Guinevere, she will next be playing an alcoholic waitress in The Jacket, which she describes as a thinking man's thriller'. Once again, it marks a departure from what viewers have come to expect.

But, as she explains: "As a moviegoer, I want to see women who are proactive and not just the girl in the movie that's what I'm interested in. So as far as me choosing roles, I only do what interests me."

So, would that entail a move to Hollywood, if the opportunity arose?

"If it's absolutely critical for my career, then yes, but I can't imagine that it ever would be. I do like it in Los Angeles the weather's good and the beaches are nice. When I first arrived, I couldn't get my head around it. I really didn't like it and I wasn't sure why.

"But I only recently bought myself a flat, in London. I haven't moved into it yet, but I bought it so if the acting thing falls apart, at least I'll have a flat."

Looking at her schedule for the next couple of years, there seems little chance of that.

King Arthur is in cinemas now.