golden medallion, from 18th-century pirates. The producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski cast Knightley for her "indescribable quality [...] reminiscent of motion picture stars from Hollywood's heyday." Knightley underestimated the stunt work required and believed she would primarily be sitting in carriages; at one point during filming, she stood for two days on a plank and rejected a stunt double's offer to jump off the platform for the scene. Despite boasting the names of stars like Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and a $135 million budget, Pirates was expected to fail at the box office. Knightley herself was not optimistic about its prospects. The film opened at number one on the box office, and became one of the highest-grossing releases of the year, with worldwide revenues of $654 million. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times likened Knightley's "strident and confident" physical assurance to that of Nicole Kidman, while Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club branded her and Bloom as appealing leads. Also in 2003, Knightley appeared in Richard Curtis's Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually, featuring an ensemble cast, which included her childhood idol Emma Thompson. Knightley played Juliet, a woman whose fiancée's best man is secretly in love with her. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticised the waste of Knightley's talent in a "nothing" role, while Megan Conner of The Guardian remarked that the film turned Knightley into a household name. Love Actually has been referred to as a modern-day Christmas classic. Knightley believes the film's trajectory to be "extraordinary", given that its popularity resurfaced a few years after the film's release. Knightley's only release of 2004 was the historical film King Arthur, where she played Guinevere, a warrior queen and the wife of the titular character. The part required her to learn boxing, archery, and riding. The critic A. O. Scott praised Knightley for "throw[ing] herself bodily into every scene". Although the film received unfavourable reviews, Knightley's stature as a performer grew; she was voted by the readers of Hello magazine as the industry's most promising teen star, and featured in Time magazine's article, which stated that she seemed dedicated to develop herself as a serious actor rather than a film star. Knightley appeared in three films in 2005, the first of which was the psychological thriller The Jacket, co-starring Adrien Brody. In a mixed review for Empire, Kim Newman wrote that the role was unlike the ones