Actress Keira Knightley says she was a real tomboy while growing up, adding that she never liked watching ballet as a kid.

The actress feels that made the experience of doing the film "The Nutcracker And The Four Realms" special.

"I saw it when my mum took me to see it when I was three and I was absolutely terrified and I hid under the seat. The mice were terrifying but then she took me back because she had a great friend who was a ballet dancer so we were very lucky we got to see a lot of ballet when I was younger and then I saw it again when I was six then, I was a real tomboy," Knightley said.

"I was not interested in the Sugar Plum Fairy at all, I just wanted to be the mice... I wanted to be the Mice king! My mom bought me a sword afterwards and I would run around pretending to be the Mice King. So I have got a history. What's funny is that I never liked watching ballet as a kid. I never remember what the story was, I was just like 'Whoa! It's magic like it's a magical world' like you kind of take that away from the ballet, isn't it? It's kind of more the magic than anything else," she added.

"The Nutcracker And The Four Realms" is the retelling of ETA Hoffmann's short story "The Nutcracker And The Mouse King" and Marius Petipa's and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker". It's a story of a young girl who gets a locked egg as a gift from her deceased mother, and narrates her magical journey to get the key for the egg.

Talking about her decision to do the movie, she said: One of the main reasons I wanted to do this was I was very aware that I had been doing a lot of work with very serious subject matters and you know, just the kind of opportunity to play somebody that was so silly like it's just silly and completely over the top. I am bouncing off the walls and I am a sugary lovely fairy!"

"The Nutcracker And The Four Realms" will air in India on Star Movies on May 10.