Keira Knightley on feminism, privacy and her 12-hour Twitter stint

Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Keira Knightley covers the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, in which she discusses the lack of women in filmmaking, her marriage and the importance of privacy.

The 28-year-old actress, who stars in the upcoming Kenneth Branaugh-directed Jack Ryan thriller, Shadow Recruit, said that she's often the only female member of a cast.

"[I'll be] walking into a room, and talking about why my character is saying this, but I’ll be talking about it to a room of five guys. I’ve lost most of the arguments," she told the mag.

The lack of women in power in the industry has also inspired Knightley to consider directing.

"Hollywood has a really long way to go," she said. "I don’t think that anybody can deny that, really, and I think as much as you are getting more women playing lead roles… they’re still pretty few and far between."

Knightley also identifies herself as a feminist, echoing her 2012 interview with Vogue.

“I remember doing interviews, and people would ask, as if it was a joke, ‘So you mean you are a feminist?’ As though feminism couldn’t be discussed unless we were making fun of it. I don’t want to deny my femininity,” she said at the time.

"I think it’s great that the discussions are finally being allowed to be had [about feminism], as opposed to anybody mentioning feminism and everybody going, 'Oh, f***ing shut up,'” she told Harper's Bazaar. "Somehow, it became a dirty word. I thought it was really weird for a long time, and I think it’s great that we’re coming out of that."

The British actress, who wed musician James Righton in France last May, is notoriously private about personal life. But she did join Twitter for a short 12 hours under an alias to see what it was like. She wasn't a fan.

"It made me feel a little bit like being in a school playground and not being popular and standing on the sidelines kind of going, 'Argh.'"

"I like being private," she added. "I haven’t asked a lot of the actresses who I really admire, 'How do you do it?' because I don’t want to know. Maybe I’m childish in that way; I just don’t want to know about your life.'"

[Harper's Bazaar UK, Vogue]