Mark Romanek, Lorene Scafaria & Lynn Shelton Defend Keira Knightley

Well, that escalated quickly. Over the weekend, an interview emerged with director John Carney in which he used an opportunity to promote “Sing Street” to slam Keira Knightley, the lead actress in his far less well received “Begin Again.” He blamed the Oscar nominated actress for letting her entourage get in the way of making the movie and suggested she wasn’t quite ready to go to lengths required of top level talent. Carney’s remarks come off as petty to say the least, and it hasn’t taken long for some of Knightley’s former collaborators to voice their support for the actress.

Mark Romanek, Lorene Scafaria and Lynn Shelton —who directed Knightley in “Never Let Me Go,” “Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World” and “Laggies” respectively— all hit Twitter to support Knightley and to share their experiences working with her. In short, whatever Carney had to say was not a sentiment shared by these filmmakers and only serves to underscore how his comments make him come off as petulant. Check out what the filmmakers had to say below. [The Guardian]