To writer-director Richard Curtis, one “Love Actually” scene actually isn’t perfect.
The filmmaker reflected on the 2003 Christmas rom-com to The Independent UK while promoting new film “Genie.” As “Love Actually” celebrates its 20th anniversary, Curtis admitted that a particular scene involving Andrew Lincoln’s character professing his love to his best friend’s new wife (Keira Knightley) with a series of cue cards hasn’t aged well.
“He actually turns up, to his best friend’s house, to say to his best friend’s wife, on the off chance that she answers the door, ‘I love you,’” Curtis said. “I think it’s a bit weird. I mean, I remember being taken by surprise about seven years ago, I was going to be interviewed by somebody and they said, ‘Of course, we’re mainly interested in the stalker scene,’ and I said, ‘What scene is that?’ And then I was, like, educated in it.”
Curtis continued, “All I can say is that a lot of intelligent people were involved in the film at the time, and we didn’t think it was a stalker scene. But if it’s interesting or funny for different reasons [now] then, you know, God bless our progressive world.”
The “Notting Hill” director previously revisited the film for ABC’s 20th-anniversary special “The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later,” during which he admitted the movie lacked diversity.
“The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid,” Curtis said. “You know, I think there are sort of three plots that have sort of bosses and people who work for them.”
He added of the ensemble production itself, “There is such extraordinary love that goes on every minute in so many ways [in life], all the way around the world, and makes me wish my film was better. It makes me wish I’d made a documentary just to kind of observe it…Films can act as a reminder of how lovely things can be and how there are all sorts of things which we might pass by, which are, in fact, the best moments in our lives.”
