Johnny Depp once spoke out about kissing Keira Knightley when she was just a teenager, and his comments were startling.

The two starred opposite one another in the beloved Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, with the first film premiering in 2003.

They portrayed Elizabeth Swann and Captain Jack Sparrow, respectively.

The two were embroiled in a love triangle with the character of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom).

Many viewers actually rooted for Swann and Sparrow to end up together in the franchise, despite Turner being clearly perfect for her.

At the time of filming, Knightley was an up and coming actress at just 17-years-old.

Meanwhile, Depp was much more established and 39-years-old – coincidentally, the age Knightley is today.

Back in 2012, Depp shared his feelings on their kiss in an interview with The Standard.

He said: “Kissing someone you are not romantically involved with is always awkward, but the fact that Keira is twenty something years younger than me made it infinitely more awkward. Still, she was a good sport about it and we did what we had to do.”

Knightley had her own say on the kiss.

In an interview with TMZ in 2006, she said: “I couldn’t ask for a better kissing scene with Johnny Depp actually I think my 14 year-old self was yelping with pleasure.

Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp kissed in Pirates of the Caribbean (Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

“It was fantastic! What more can a girl ask for? I’ve got Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and I get to kiss both of them. It’s wonderful!”

With years gone by and having had time to reflect, in 2018, Knightley gave an interview that frames her experience on Pirates of the Caribbean in a different light.

She told Variety: “I’m not an extrovert, so I found that level of scrutiny and that level of fame really hard.

“It was an age where you are becoming, you haven’t become, and you need to make mistakes. It’s a very precarious age, particularly for women.”

She continued: “So looking back, would I do anything different? No, I wouldn’t because I’m unbelievably lucky now, and my career is in a place where I really enjoy it, and I have a level of fame that’s much less intense.

Keira Knightley has since admitted she had ‘many years of therapy’ (Tim P. Whitby/Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for BFI)

“I can deal with it now, and that’s great. But at the time, it was not so great, and took many years of therapy to figure it out.”

The actress also shared her lessons on being a young woman in the industry.

“We have to be very careful with our young women.

“When I work with young actresses, I’m so protective of them. There’s a lot of people who go, ‘Oh, you’re only here because of your face.’ And they belittle them because of the way that they look. I think everyone can be a little kinder,” she concluded.