Richard Curtis; Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon inLove Actually(2003).Photo: David M. Benett/Getty, Peter Mountain/Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
As the 2003 British holiday classic nearsits 20th anniversary, the movie’s writer-director, 66, is addressing the commentary on female protagonists' bodies in the film and others he wrote, includingBridget Jones’s Diary(2001).
“I remember how shocked I was like five years ago when Scarlett said to me, ‘You can never use the word ‘fat’ again,' " Curtis recently said during a conversation with his daughter, writer and activistScarlett Curtis, at the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, perToday.
“And wow, you were right,” he told Scarlett, 28, directly. “I think I was behind the curve, andthose jokes aren’t any longer funny, so I don’t feel I was malicious at the time, but I think I was unobservant and not as clever as I should have been.”
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Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon inLove Actually(2003).Mary Evans/UNIVERSAL PICTURES / WORKING TITLE FILMS / DNA FILMS/Ronald Grant/Everett
Mary Evans/UNIVERSAL PICTURES / WORKING TITLE FILMS / DNA FILMS/Ronald Grant/Everett
Love Actuallyfollows several stories and stars, alongside Grant and McCutcheon, an ensemble cast ofEmma Thompson,Laura Linney,Bill Nighy,Thomas Brodie-Sangster,Olivia Olson,Alan Rickman,Andrew Lincoln,Keira Knightley,Colin Firth,Chiwetel Ejiofor,Rodrigo Santoro, Lúcia Moniz,Martin Freeman, Kris Marshall, Joanna Page, Heike Makatsch, Abdul Salis, Gregor Fisher andLiam Neeson.
Speaking withDiane Sawyerfor the ABC News specialThe Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Laterback in November 2022, Curtis said he felt “uncomfortable and a bit stupid” aboutthe movie’s “lack of diversity"almost 20 years later.
“There are things you’d change but, thank God, society is changing, so my film is bound, in some moments, to feel out of date,” he said.
“The idea was meant to be that you just casually met this very stern headmistress … [but] later on in the film, [we] suddenly fell in with [her] and you realize that no matter how unlikely it seems, any character that you come across in life has their own complicated tale of love,” he said.
Anotherbrief scene that was cutwas shot in Kenya and involved a man and a woman living in Africa “who have faced famine andcome out of the ordeal together and united,” Grazia reported in 2020.
source: people.com
