Keira Knightley ''watched football and drank beer'' to cheer herself up after filming and sexually charged scenes for her new movie 'A Dangerous Method' with Michael Fassbender.

Keira Knightley "watched football and drank beer" to lighten her mood after filming "dark" scenes for 'A Dangerous Method'.

The British actress plays a troubled patient who falls in love with her psychoanalyst, the renowned Carl Jung - played by Michael Fassbender - in the movie, and admits she was so drained by their emotionally and sexually charged scenes, she turned to simple comforts to relax.

She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "When you're playing something so dark you want to have a really nice time afterwards otherwise it's far too depressing.

"The actual filming work was very focused and very creative, but at the end of the day we watched football (soccer) - the World Cup was on - and drank beer."

The 26-year-old actress achieved worldwide stardom as one of the lead characters in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise, but refuses to move from London to Hollywood and has recently taken on more low-key roles, a decision which has lessened some of the negative side-effects of fame.

She explained: "At the time of the 'Pirates' movies I had a crazy time where very simple things were very difficult. I had about 20 guys standing on my doorstep, so going for groceries became incredibly difficult. I just didn't go out. When it gets to that point it's not safe to go out and it just becomes impossible.

"Since then, I've been doing different films and life has become easier. I've never been tempted to live in Los Angeles. Because I'm on the other side of the world I have more of a European sensibility and I've done more European films."

Keira is next looking forward to decorating the apartment she bought in the UK capital five years ago, but hasn't had chance to furnish properly yet.

She added: "I haven't done anything with it yet. I've got a couple of bits in it from movies I've appeared in, but most of the stuff's from eBay or antiques markets. It's cheap, not expensive and very eclectic."