[Digital_Ice]

Strong women come of age in Hollywood

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY IN DOMINO (opens 27 Oct)

NOTHING says tough chick more than a woman with a machine gun and a pair of handcuffs.

Well, English rose Keira Knightley, 20, plays one in the US$30 million ($51m) action adventure Domino.

The film is loosely based on the life of Domino Harvey, a former British model-turned-bounty hunter in Los Angeles.

But Knightley is not new to the 'bossy boots' roles - she was the tomboy footballer in her breakout role in Bend It Like Beckham.

She was an unconventional damsel-in-distress in Pirates Of The Caribbean.

As one of literature's earliest feminist heroines, Elizabeth Bennet, in yet another version of the classic Jane Austen novel Pride And Prejudice, she again plays a character with rapier-sharp wit.

For Domino, Knightley hacked her hair, dyed it blonde and got tattoos.

She also strips to shoot some steamy sex scenes with co-star Edgar Ramirez.

She told the National Ledger: 'I'm British, so the whole sex scene and being topless is fine. In fact, to be able to do that in the middle of the desert was actually quite liberating.'

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/show/st...,95408,00.html