Keira Knightly may have sailed beautiful waters in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, but her new film took her to the dark side.

The British actress tortured herself with alcohol and disturbing artwork for David Cronenburg’s A Dangerous Method, the story of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung’s relationship.

Knightley, who stars as a psychiatric patient, downed vodka and champagne for the movie’s intense sex scenes, according to a recent interview in Culture magazine.

“We had one or two shots maximum. It was a vodka shot to calm our nerves and away you go,” said the 26-year-old. “Then we had champagne. We drank quite a lot of champagne, actually. The vodka and the champagne was a good combination.”

But the insanity didn’t stop there. Knightley also covered her trailer with the terrifying works of Francis Bacon.

“My mum took me to an exhibition when I was really little and I just remember how claustrophobic and completely terrified I was. I hated it. And now I’m scarred forever.”

A Dangerous Method is scheduled to be released in February.