Girl��s Got Some Pipes! Keira Knightley Shows Us a Whole New Side of Her in ‘Begin Again’

Begin Again, writer-director John Carney’s (Once) romance musical with a twist, opens this Friday in select theaters. While the movie as a whole is a foot-tapping ode dedicated to struggling artists in NYC, Keira Knightley stole the show with her incredible voice and acoustic indie jams.

Knightley plays Greta, recent dumpee of rockstar Dave Kohl (Adam Levine) and struggling artist living on her friend’s couch in the West Village. After getting dragged onto a dive bar stage to perform one evening, Greta catches the attention of down on his luck record-exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo) who becomes completely entranced by her talents.

Knightley reportedly trained for months with voice coach Roger Love, who also helped Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix play the Cashes in Walk the Line. Love helped structure Knightley’s voice based on her character, who’s forte is songwriting. Knightley not only got her pipes just right for the role, but she even learned some skills on guitar.

Even though the film features Adam Levine, even he couldn’t hold a candle to Knightley’s performance. Between the two of them however, we’ve been given one of the best soundtracks and original scores of the year, which could definitely be a contender for award season.

Since Knightley has diversified her career with Begin Again, as singing is a pretty valuable skill to have as an actress, it’s possible we might see her sing in future roles. Check out the video above and see for yourself, pre-order the soundtrack (if you enjoyed Once chances are you’ll like this), and be on the lookout for Begin Again on demand.