WASHINGTON: Keira Knightley was left shell-shocked when an over-enthusiastic fan came up to her with abusive rants while she was out in public alone. The Pirates of the Caribbean star was taken aback when the fan tried to speak to her while she was walking alone close to her London home.

“The other day I was walking down the street and was really thinking about this book I’d been sent.

You know when you’re really in another place. Somebody jumped out and went, ‘Keira Knightley!’” Contactmusic quoted the actress, as saying.

She added, “I got such a shock, I couldn’t say anything because I’d been thinking about the book and this guy took incredible offence and started hurling the most amazing abuse.”

And when she did not respond to her name call, the fan called her a “c**t” in a bout of aggression. “He said, ‘Who the f**k do you think you are? You’re such a c**t.’ All this, and I’m completely on my own.”

Now, Knightley is finding it hard to recover from the encounter and has confessed that she was left feeling “jumpy” by the unexpected taunt.

“It’s weird thing to have to deal with, not on a day-to-day basis, but it’s happened enough to make me quite jumpy,” she said.