By Alicia Rancilio
NEW YORK (AP) --For Keira Knightley and Adam Levine, their movie "Begin Again" was an experience of firsts.
Knightley, an accomplished actress, sings in the movie, whereas Levine, frontman of the band Maroon 5, acts.
The two admitted that leaving their comfort zones made them uneasy but that they related to each other's nerves.
"I kept telling her she was great and she wouldn't believe me, and she told me that I wasn't bad at acting either but I didn't believe her, so it was perfect," Levine said Saturday as the film closed the Tribeca Film Festival.
"I was completely terrified," Knightley, 29, emphasized of her singing.
"I didn't anticipate being as frightened as I was. I said yes to doing it and I was, 'Oh, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine,' and then suddenly I found myself in a studio with real people who did it for a living and I was like, 'I don't know what I'm doing. I'm pretending.'"
To walk a red carpet for his first acting role, Levine, 35, said he was "blown away."
Levine says he enjoyed the experience so much he might have caught the acting bug.
"My experience was so much fun," he said. "It made me kind of start to like it a little bit, but I don't know. I don't think you can really make those bold declarations, but we'll see."
So how did the two grade each other?
Knightley called Levine a "natural entertainer" who was "sensational in this film."
Levine, who serves as a judge and mentor on NBC's singing competition show "The Voice," said that if Knightley were to audition he would want her on his team.
"Begin Again," is directed by John Carney, who also was behind the successful musical drama "Once." It also stars Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld and Catherine Keener. CeeLo Green also has a small role.
The movie opens in the U.S. in July.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More