Keira Knightley over period dramas

Adam Levine and Keira Knightley star in the movie, Begin Again. Photo / Getty Images

Actress Keira Knightley said she is straying away from period dramas after discovering a new chapter in her life.

The 29-year-old is set to make her singing debut in feelgood film Begin Again, which is released next month.

She will be starring opposite singer Adam Levine who found fame with American rock band Maroon 5, when she plays his singer-songwriter girlfriend.

Knightley, who played the tragic heroine in 2005's Pride & Prejudice and more recently took the title role in 2012's Anna Karenina, said she was drawn to the scripts because "You can f*** with people's notion of the past."

She told The Sunday Times' Culture magazine: "But the bitch is the time spent getting ready. It was the practicality of life that made me think, after Anna Karenina, how this would be nicer if I got two hours more sleep a day.

"Begin Again came at a point when I was questioning what I put out into the world, and I was putting out a lot of dark films. This film is an innocent view of the music industry, not involving sex, drugs or rock 'n' roll, so some tribes of music fan will loathe it. But I was looking for something about hope and that's certainly what this is."

The London home counties-born actress admitted a preference for working with female colleagues in the film industry because "then you don't have to do this lovable, soft version of what the female sex has to be. It also allows men to understand women, as opposed to them being something pink and fluffy."

Begin Again is in cinemas from August 7.

- AAP