Over the past two decades, rewatching the 2003 holiday rom-com Love Actually has become a beloved — if, at times, confounding — annual tradition, a yearly yuletide catch-up with the likes of Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, the late Alan Rickman and the rest of the star-studded cast.
The spirited favorite famously interweaves 10 separate stories of Londoners looking for love and navigating relationships in the six weeks leading up to Christmas. And it's the film's mix of cheeky British humor, heartwarming romance, festive antics and, among other things, a great soundtrack (we personally haven't been able to listen to the Pointer Sisters the same way since!) that has allowed the holiday hit to endure these decades later.
"I feel lucky as can be. You make a movie and you just think it'll come out and people might watch it for three weeks so it is a surprise and I am kind of puzzled," director Richard Curtis told GamesRadar+ about Love Actually's continuing legacy. He added: "Sometimes when you finish movies, when you watch them, they're like a very expensive diary. So when I watch it, I remember all the times, troubles, and fun of shooting it. But I just consider myself very lucky and I start getting texts around December 1 from people who have watched it and I just think, 'Well, I never dreamed that would happen'."
To get in the spirit of the holidays — and to remind us that love actually is all around — here are 50 lovely facts about Love Actually.
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50 Lovely Facts about Love Actually
As you might remember, Love Actually begins with a sweet montage of loved ones reuniting at Heathrow Airport. And, movingly, those reunion clips are all real: Director Richard Curtis had the crew set up a hidden camera at the busy airport for a week to get authentic footage of real-life family and friends coming together in the arrivals hall.
"Every time they saw something they really liked, then the runner would charge off and ask the people to sign a bit of paper, whether or not they were happy that it should be shown in the film," Curtis revealed in a director's commentary version of the film. "I still think it'll be quite a surprise to the people who go to the cinema and see themselves."
2. Keira Knightley was barely legal when she played blushing bride Juliet
The Pirates of the Caribbean star was just 18 years old when she portrayed newlywed Juliet opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor's Peter in Love Actually. In fact, the actress was only five years older than co-star Thomas Brodie-Sangster was when he played lovelorn schoolboy Sam.
Richard Curtis was reportedly worried that audiences wouldn't buy that then-10-year-old Olivia Olson — the talented young star who played Sam's love interest, the Mariah Carey-crooning Joanna — was actually the one belting out "All I Want for Christmas Is You," even going so far as asking the girl to "do it a little less good" during filming.
Olson, as you know, knocked the singing scene out of the park, so much so that music labels came calling with record deals after the film came out, though the actress turned them down. "It seemed kind of stupid and forced," Olson told Family That Geeks in 2016, per Self magazine. "Looking at the grand scheme of things, I could have been some child star and had a total breakdown by the age I am now, and I probably wouldn't have had the opportunities I have now. I might have been a has-been by now instead of still trying to build up my career. So, I don't regret it not working out that way."
4. There were 14 different storylines in the original script
Though there are ten interconnected plotlines in the film, originally the script had a whopping 14, though writer-director Richard Curtis ultimately decided to cut things down. One storyline was reportedly centered on an African couple supporting each other through a famine, while another was focused on a stern headmistress nursing her lesbian partner through cancer.
5. Colin Firth's character name is a dig against the director's own brother
Colin Firth's character, a jilted author called Jamie, was actually named after Richard Curtis' own brother. The iconic line "I hate Uncle Jamie!" was included as a playful jab against the director's real-life sibling.
Related: Love Actually Is All Around! 25 Love Actually Quotes to Warm Your Heart This Holiday Season
Universal Pictures
One of the most famous moments from the film is the 10 Downing Street boogie-down by Hugh Grant's character, David the Prime Minister, set to the Pointer Sisters' jubilant hit "Jump (For My Love)". And though it's clearly a fan favorite, it is remembered far less fondly by the actor himself.
"He was hugely grumpy about it," Richard Curtis told TheDaily Beast about Grant's animosity towards the dance number. “He was so wanting his bit not to be fake; he wanted to feel as though he could be prime minister.' He added: "He kept on putting it off, and he didn’t like the song — it was originally a Jackson 5 song, but we couldn’t get it — so he was hugely unhappy about it'."
7. Rowan Atkinson filmed his hilarious cameo at midnight inside Selfridges
Iconic English comedian Rowan Atkinson — yes, Mr. Bean — has a memorable cameo as a very thorough department store employee. The scene between his shop-assistant character and an increasingly irritable Alan Rickman was filmed inside the famous Selfridges department store on London's Oxford Street, but at midnight, so it was empty of shoppers and real-life employees.
During a December 2018 appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, actor Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist, The Favourite) revealed that he had auditioned to play the role of yearning youngster Sam. He had caught the eye of the film's casting director during a fencing lesson of all things, but the part ultimately went to Thomas Brodie-Sangster. "I didn't get it in the end, obviously, but I do remember meeting Hugh Grant and [writer-director] Richard Curtis and sitting down and reading some scenes,” he shared.
9. Richard Curtis' adorable son cameos as Spider-Man during the film's Christmas pageant
Yes, that face-painted five-year-old is none other than director Richard Curtis's own son. "There's a scene where they're up onstage performing the Nativity play, and he's got a Spider-Man mask on, and there's a big close-up of a very perplexed-looking 5-year-old," Curtis told The Daily Beast in 2013. "And my daughter is one of the lobsters."
And it wasn't just his kids popping up in the Christmas classic: His mother-in-law plays the housekeeper at Downing Street.
10. Martine McCutcheon’s role was written just for her
The part of Natalie, assistant-slash-love interest to Hugh Grant's Prime Minister character, was not only written with English actress Martine McCutcheon already in mind — Richard Curtis also originally named the character "Martine" after her in early drafts of the script. He ended up changing the name to Natalie so McCutcheon "wouldn’t get cocky," he joked in the film's DVD commentary.
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Emma Thompson in Love ActuallyUniversal Pictures
We'll say it: Emma Thompson deserved an Oscar nod for her heartbreaking performance as stay-at-home mom Karen, whose husband (played by Alan Rickman) is having an affair with his secretary. Karen's devastating discovery of that infidelity is the film's saddest moment, one that the actress had to relive through a whopping 12 takes.
"I've had so much bloody practise at crying in a bedroom and then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer," Thompson later told The Telegraph.
12. Claudia Schiffer's cute scene with Liam Neeson almost didn't happen
Claudia Schiffer is mentioned throughout Love Actually as the celebrity crush of Liam Neeson's character Daniel, so it's extra fun when the legendary German model shows up for a flirty cameo late in the film. Richard Curtis had originally planned on casting a Schiffer lookalike, as he didn't think they'd be able to get the supermodel herself in the film. But it came at a price: Schiffer reportedly took home a whopping $350,000 for 60 seconds of screentime, per Vogue Australia.
The cringey scene in which Colin (Kris Marshall) insults the wedding caterer to her face was actually originally written for another Richard Curtis classic: The Hugh Grant-led rom-comFour Weddings and a Funeral.
14. Billy Bob Thornton suffered from a strange phobia on set
"Billy Bob Thornton is a curious man with curious phobias," Curtis told Elle in 2013. "[He told us] 'The strangest phobia I've got is I'm disturbed by photographs of Benjamin Disraeli. Specifically his facial hair.' It was really unfortunate for him that this would be the only time in his life that there is a photograph of Disraeli on the stairs in a major film he's going to do [at the Prime Minister's home]. We just had to walk him past the photograph. [He said] 'I'll just turn away at that moment, and I'll be fine.' "
15. Sarah's apartment was modeled Bridget Jones scribe Helen Fielding's flat
Everyone remembers the frustrating scene where Sarah (Laura Linney) doesn't get to consummate her feelings for her office crush Karl (Rodrigo Santoro) at her apartment. You might not know, however, that the layout for said apartment was inspired by that of real-life author Helen Fielding, famous for the Bridget Jones' novels. (Curtis co-wrote the screenplays for Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.)
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Universal Pictures
One of the most popular, and parodied, scenes from the film is when Andrew Lincoln's Mark professes his love for his best friend's wife Juliet (Keira Knightley) via a series of romantic flashcards.
And the actor himself had a hand in creating that magical moment: "It is my handwriting!" Lincoln told Entertainment Weekly in November 2013. "It's funny, because the art department did it, and then I said, 'Well, can I do it?' because I like to think that my handwriting is really good. [Laughs]."
17. The large cast hung out with each other in a trailer park
“We didn’t all film together, but we had a big trailer park for all the cast,“ Nighy told The Guardian about the trailer village where the actors would congregate when they weren't needed onscreen. “There were so many famous people in there, we used to talk about being on Liam Neeson Way or Emma Thompson Road or Hugh Grant Avenue. And it was a masterpiece of diplomacy, too; we all had the same size and type of trailer.“
The surprise "All You Need is Love" performance at the nuptials of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is one of the rom-com's sweetest moments, and it's made even more heartwarming by the fact that director Richard Curtis himself has an uncredited cameo as one of the trombone players.
19. The Prime Minister scenes were not actually shot at 10 Downing Street
Not surprising, securing rights to film the actual location of the British Prime Minister's household is quite difficult, so the production team instead used RSA House at 8 John Adam Street as a proxy for exteriors and built a set at Shepperton Studios for interiors. However, Richard Curtis and Go. were allowed to visit the real 10 Downing Street to help accurately recreate the residence.
20. Emma Thompson wore a fat suit
Reportedly, Emma Thompson was much slimmer than Richard Curtis had envisioned for the character of Karen, so the actress wore padding to portray the slightly heavier woman.
Related: The Most Believable Christmas Movie Isn’t the One You Think
January Jones in Love ActuallyUniversal Pictures
A lively scene sees British bachelor Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) regaling a group of gorgeous American girls — played by Elisha Cuthbert, January Jones and Ivana Milicevic —with his English accent. The actors were "allowed to improvise and try different things and it wasn’t just completely set into Richard’s writing," Cuthbert had told VH1.
But it was future Mad Men star January Jones who really made an impression, the film's script editor (and Richard Curtis' wife) Emma Freud divulged on social media. "January Jones wrote half of her lines," Freud tweeted in 2015. "She was sooooo funny when we filmed that scene."
22. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth’s storylines were originally intended as two standalone films
Yes, writer-director Richard Curtis initially began writing the storylines for Grant's PM David and Firth's author Jamie as two separate rom-com scripts. However, reportedly inspired by the films of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Altman, Curtis combined the gents' stories with other plots to create the multi-narrative Love Actually.
Though their characters Sarah and Karl were finally getting somewhere with their own relationship, off-screen, actors Laura Linney and Rodrigo Santoro were both dealing with respective breakups during filming.
"It was so sweet because we were both very brokenhearted when we made that movie. He had just been dumped, [and] I had just been dumped. I remember the day we were going to shoot [our kissing scene], and we [were] both just slumped in the van," Laura said on the Graham Norton Show in 2019. "He was like 'Laura, my heart is broken,' and I was like, 'So is mine.' I turned to him, and I was like, 'Well all day long we get to make each other feel better.' I think there is a sweetness to the scene because of that. We were both very sad."
24. Keira Knightley had a massive zit under that big baker-boy hat
Juliet's gigantic baker-boy hat was selected more for function than fashion, Keira Knightley revealed. “I had a massive spot in the middle of my forehead,” the star recalled to BBC Radio 1 in 2018. "This is the problem with being 17 and being in films! It was humongous, so there was no choice but to find a hat to cover it — because there was no lighting or makeup that was going to cover it."
25. Mission Impossible star Simon Pegg auditioned to play Rowan Atkinson's role
English actor-comedian Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) was eyed for the role of Rufus, the over-the-top jewelry salesman in Love Actually. However, that role went to Richard Curtis' friend and frequent collaborator Rowan Atkinson.
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Bill Nighy in Love ActuallyUniversal Pictures
Bill Nighy's naughty-but-nice turn as aging rocker Billy Mack is one of the actor's most beloved roles, but even he seems confused about how he got the part. "I did a rehearsal reading of the script as a favor to the great casting director, Mary Selway, who had been trying to get me into a film for a long time," Nighy told The Daily Beast in 2013. "I thought it was simply to help her hear the script aloud and to my genuine surprise I was given the job."
27. Natalie and David's last scene together was actually their first
The first scene Martine McCutcheon and Hugh Grant shot together was actually their loved-up reunion at Heathrow from the film's finale, which required the actress to dramatically jump into Grant's arms. "We had such a laugh, just trying," McCutcheon shared during a 2017 interview with BUILD. "I mean, the amount of times I'd run and he'd go, 'Come on!' It was like a really bad Dirty Dancing!"
English filmmaker-screenwriter Rebecca Frayn has an uncredited role as Joanna, the dearly departed wife and mother of Liam Neeson and Thomas Brodie-Sangster's characters. She only appears via photo, in an emotional montage at Joanna's funeral set to the ever-so-cool sounds of the Bay City Roller's "Bye Bye Baby."
29. A Love Actually sequel came out in 2017
In March 2017, in celebration of Red Nose Day, the Love Actually crew — including director Richard Curtis and actors Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Andrew Lincoln, Liam Neeson and Billy Nighy — reprised their roles for a special short film, Red Nose Day Actually.
“I would never have dreamt of writing a sequel to Love Actually, but I thought it might be fun to do 10 minutes to see what everyone is now up to,” Curtis said in a public statement at the time. “Who has aged best? — I guess that’s the big question . . . or is it so obviously Liam? We’ve been delighted and grateful that so many of the cast are around and able to take part—and it’ll certainly be a nostalgic moment getting back together and re-creating their characters 14 years later. We hope to make something that’ll be fun — very much in the spirit of the original film and of Red Nose Day — and which we hope will help bring lots of viewers and cash to the Red Nose Day shows.”
30. It took a lot of underwear trial-and-error to decide Aurélia's lakeside ensemble
A silly scene sees writer Jamie (Colin Firth) and housekeeper Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz) flailing into a lake to save the loose pages of the former's in-progress crime novel. While Firth goes into the water clothed, Moniz's character strips down to her undergarments before jumping in — the costume department reportedly tried out 20 different sets of bras and underwear before choosing the final look.
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Universal Pictures
Everyone's heart melted when Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) finally got that sweet cheek-kiss from his crush Joanna (Olivia Olson). But it wouldn't be the only time the two actors would star opposite each other: In 2008, Olson joined the voice cast of the Disney Channel cartoon Phineas and Ferb as Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, the crush of the titular Ferb, played by Brodie-Sangster.
32. Richard Curtis was desperate to find someone Laura Linney-like to play Sarah
To play American graphic designer Sarah, Richard Curtis reportedly was after "someone like Laura Linney" but couldn't find what he was looking for among the numerous British actresses trying out for the part. Finally, his exasperated casting director offered up the suggestion that he seek out Linney herself; she auditioned and got the part.
Richard Curtis reportedly sent personalized letters, sometimes containing chocolatey treats, to actors he wanted for Love Actually, including the aforementioned Linney and The Officestar Martin Freeman.
34. Tony Blair had some issues with Hugh Grant’s fictional Prime Minister
Many viewers saw similarities between Hugh Grant's character David and IRL former Prime Minister Tony Blair. And even the politician himself was aware of the comparisons — in 2005, in response to criticism of his dealings with U.S. President George Bush, Blair said: “I know there’s a bit of us that would like me to do a Hugh Grant in Love Actually and tell America where to get off. But the difference between a good film and real life is that in real life there’s the next day, the next year, the next lifetime to contemplate the ruinous consequences of easy applause.”
35. Richard Curtis wrote the character of "Bernard" as part of a running joke
In every film that Richard Curtis writes, he includes someone called "Bernard," a character allegedly named after Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin, who stole and married Curtis' university girlfriend Anne. Each "Bernard" usually ends up being the butt of a joke — that's why in Love Actually, Thompson's son Bernard is jokingly described as "horrid."
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Martin Freeman in Love ActuallyUniversal Pictures
Though much of Love Actually is wholesome, family-friendly fare, the movie actually has an R rating due to some coarse language, sexual innuendos and, in the case of Martin Freeman and Joanna Page's characters, graphic nudity. (The actors portray John and Judy, stand-ins for a sex scene in a film production.) And the latter is a detail Curtis wishes he could change from the final cut. “I think the naked people should be wearing more clothes,” the director told NME.
He shared a hilariously awkward moment with GamesRadar+, saying: "I was talking to someone yesterday who pointed out to me that they'd sat down last year with their kids to watch Love Actually, the lovely Christmas film, and then suddenly the naked couple came on. It never occurred to me - of course, it's a friendly family film but with some fairly graphic sex in the middle, which I can't apologize for enough."
37. A lot of TV airings cut out the stand-in storyline
Speaking of, due to the graphic nature of their scenes, it's understandable that John and Judy's storyline gets seriously edited down when it airs on television, sometimes cut from the film altogether.
Billy Mack/s Christmas cover was reportedly recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London, made famous by The Beatles and immortalized in their album (duh) Abbey Road.
39. Colin Firth and Lúcia Moniz had to act like that lake was way deeper than it really was
That's because the water was only eighteen inches deep! When it looks like the characters are swimming around, they were actually resting on their knees the whole time.
40. Olivia Olson had her first real-life kiss in the movie
"It was my first kiss and on-screen kiss, too," Olson told E! News in 2016, about her sweet on-camera smooch with co-star Thomas Brodie-Sangster. "I was really nervous because I kind of had a crush on Thomas back in the day and I was also worried because I was taller than him."
Related: 19 Little-Known Facts About the Holiday Classic, 'White Christmas'
Keira Knightley and Chiwetel Ejiofor in Love ActuallyUniversal Pictures
"Richard Curtis wanted [Keira's] character to be kind of sexy, even as a bride," Love Actually's costume designer Joanna Johnston told Graziain 2016. "He wanted her to be dressed ready for the end of the scene where they're partying, so he had this idea of a crop top, with a bare tummy … I told Richard, 'You don't want a bare tummy going into church!' So I went for a sheer, layered style instead with petal details underneath; gauzy and multi-layered."
42. An early screen test added a change to Sarah and Karl's ending
The original script had Sarah and Karl's storyline end after that awkward phone call from her brother. However, test audiences weren't satisfied by the vague ending and wanted a more clear-cut finale for the couple, so an extra scene was shot of the duo back at the office where it's evident that the romantic moment has sadly passed them both by.
Richard Curtis revealed to Elle that he actually had several ideas for Mark's big declaration of love to Juliet and ran each option by women in his office. "I told them, 'There's this guy, he's never told you he loved you. Which of these ideas are romantic, and which are off-putting?' [I had ideas like] filling the courtyard outside her house with roses, and they went 'yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck' for the first four." Thus, option five, the flashcard scene, was born.
44. Rowan Atkinson's character was almost going to be an angel
Selfridges employee Rufus initially wasn't just hilariously detail-oriented, but also divine— he was originally meant to be a holiday angel. “In the end, the film turned out so sort of multiplicitous that the idea of introducing an extra layer of supernatural beings was (too much),“ Curtis said in the DVD commentary.
45. Emma Thompson drew on her real-life heartbreak to play Karen
The actress didn't have to dig too deep to imagine a devastating betrayal by a loved one: she split from her first husband, actor-director Kenneth Branagh, in 1995 due to his affair with Helena Bonham Carter.
“I had my heart very badly broken by Ken, so I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it,” Thompson has said of the art-imitating-life moment, per The Huffington Post.
Related: Laugh and Swoon With the 82 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time
Colin Firth in Love ActuallyUniversal Pictures
"In the restaurant in Portugal (was Marseille actually). I WAS THE KISSING CONSULTANT. And that is a real job," Emma Freud revealed on X in 2015. She also shared how she spiced up the smooch between Jamie and Aurélia: "I 'designed' the kiss between Firth and the Portuguese girl. My signature move? His thumb on her lip before they snog. #boom.”
47. Before capturing Colin Firth's heart in Love Actually, Lúcia Moniz was a Eurovision star
Speaking of, the Lisbon-born Lúcia Moniz is not only an actress but also a singer — represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1996 and has released five albums over the years.
They include the Polish films Letter to St. Nicholas, Japan's It All Began When I Met You and an Indian take entitled A Tribute to Love.
49. There was an alternate ending with the various characters converging on a bridge
"One character was going to be driving over a bridge, one was going to be running under it, one was going to be at the Houses of Parliament, and so on. It was going to cost us half a million dollars. Eventually, the producer said, and I agreed, that I didn’t have the skill to do it," Richard told Empiremagazine in 2017.
50. The word "actually" is said 23 times in the romantic comedy
Actually, that's kind of a lot!
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