Keira Knightley Says ‘Silent Night’ Was ‘One of the Most F–ed Up’ Scripts She’d Ever Read (Video)

(Warning: The following includes major spoilers for “Silent Night.”)

When Keira Knightley read the script for Camille Griffin’s “Silent Night,” she thought it was “one of the most f—ed up things” she’d ever read.

“I thought it was one of the most f—ed up things I’ve ever read, and I was like, wow, she went there, and she went there, and then she killed them all!” Knightly told TheWrap’s Steve Pond during a virtual interview at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“It really made me laugh,” she added. “I think part of my story with this film is when I first read it, I was seven months pregnant and it had been one hell of a pregnancy and I had been sick for sick months, and then I got sciatica, and I was really really angry, like profoundly angry and uncomfortable, and we went to France so I could be in a swimming pool so I could have like five seconds where I didn’t feel pain, and there I read the script and I just laughed and laughed and my husband was like, ‘what is it about?’ and I said, ‘They all die! They all kill each other!'”

“Silent Night,” which also stars Annabelle Wallis, Matthew Goode and Roman Griffin Davis, follows people getting together for a Christmas gathering. But a deadly poison gas is making the rounds and the government is recommending everyone kill themselves before the gas gets to them.

“I think I have a bit of a disturbed mind, and what I love about the experience I had with my fellow filmmakers, cast, crew, is that we’re all a little bit in touch with our disturbed self,” Griffin said. “I think the film is a metaphor so we can talk about important issues but it can be fun and entertaining, and it’s a metaphorical exploration of what one does when the s— hits the fan, excuse my language. In brief, I would say that’s what the film is about.”

Knightley said that her view on the film completely changed once she had given birth.

“Then I was no longer hormonal and my child was sleeping through the night and I went, ‘What is this?!'” she said. “I think the reason I wanted to do it was because it speaks to that maternal catastrophe.”

Lily-Rose Depp said that while she doesn’t have kids and can’t speak to the “maternal catastrophe” part of the film, she did feel drawn to the way motherhood is portrayed in the film.

“It really touched me,” Depp said. “How do you respond to this type of situation when you are a mother with children who are alive and running around the world, and how do you respond to this when you’re a mother in waiting?”

“SIlent Night” will be released on Dec. 3 by RLJE Films and AMC+.

Watch the full interview above.