LONDON -- Keira Knightley may never walk a plank again, but she's still open to swinging a sword and shooting a gun.

"I loved doing the action and working with those stunt guys. It's great fun," she says of the two years she spent filming the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. "But yeah, there were parts that were technical and took a long time and were incredibly boring. I'm not saying I wouldn't do a film like that again, but I'd get bored if I was doing only that all the time."

So for now, the 22-year-old Londoner is satisfied to work in her native Britain, far removed from Hollywood's blockbuster factory. With Atonement out now, she has also shot the similarly low-budget The Edge of Love with Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy and The Duchess with Ralph Fiennes, about the life of the 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, an ancestor of Princess Diana.

Did Knightley just miss crumpets and tea on the tropical set of the Pirates films? What drew her back home?

"This is my culture. This is what I know, this is where I'm from, so I think it's quite natural for me to want to do stories based here. After Pirates, that was so huge, I was craving something completely different. I hate watching people who are comfortable in their own talent."

Besides which, filming in London means she remains close to the friends who knew her before Capt. Jack Sparrow entered her life.

"Most of them are in a creative field. If your job is to pretend to be different people from different walks of life, I think it's very important to surround yourself with people from other walks of life. What's great is that they understand the bulls--t around it."

Even if they have difficulty digesting it. Case in point: Atonement director Joe Wright, who has known Knightley long enough to glean what it's like to be one of the UK's biggest, most photographed celebrities.

"I know it's a luxury problem like the Americans say, but it is horrible. I've been with her when she's chased by nasty sweat men in motorbike jackets riding through London. It's really disturbing.

"Yeah, it's part of things these days, but it didn't use to be, it doesn't have to be ... it's a shame that's happened to our culture. I find nothing glamorous about being chased by a motorbike while you go to Safeway shopping.

"She deals with it admirably, but I wouldn't wish it upon my worse enemy."