The “Love Actually” solid — or at the very least a few of them — took a while to relive reminiscences of the traditional vacation film in a brand new primetime particular. On Nov. 29, practically 20 years after the movie first aired, Diane Sawyer hosted a particular known as “The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later” in celebration of the event.
In it, director Richard Curtis and stars Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Bill Nighy, Martine McCutcheon, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster all sat down to debate their reminiscences of the film. One of their most important matters of debate was Grant’s curmudgeonly nature. “He’s typically cranky and sad, however he’s additionally the one individual on this planet who’s by no means despatched me a textual content that hasn’t made me snicker,” stated Curtis of the actor’s character. “Hugh finds everybody annoying,” joked Thompson, earlier than Grant stated, “I’m not simply depressing myself, I wish to make everybody round me depressing if I can.”
As it seems, Grant was a bit cranky in the course of the filming of “Love Actually” — notably throughout his notorious dancing scene. “No Englishman can dance after they’re sober at 8 within the morning,” he stated. “He was grumpy, however he knew, it was a contractual obligation,” Curtis laughed.
Grant additionally had his doubts after seeing the film, and he wasn’t the one one. “I sat there considering, ‘God, it is fairly type of on the market, is not it?'” Thompson recalled. “And then Hugh got here up behind me as we had been strolling out and stated, ‘Correct me if I’m improper, however is that probably the most psychotic factor we have ever been in?'”
“Well, it’s a bit psychotic!” Grant countered. “Like I stated, it is Richard on steroids. When he writes about love, he means it and that’s fairly uncommon.” He did say he is come to an understanding of the film through the years, with a bit of assist from his spouse, Anna Elisabet Eberstein. “I did drunkenly watch a little bit of ‘Love Actually’ a number of months in the past with my spouse, and she or he was the one who stated . . . ‘It’s all about ache. It’s all about struggling,'” Grant advised Sawyer in the course of the interview, per the Los Angeles Times.
Curtis, for his half, made it clear that he stands by the movie’s themes. “We get 1000’s of movies about serial killers, and there is solely ever been about 9 of them,” he stated. “And but, there will be 1,000,000 folks falling in love, feeling it is probably the most attention-grabbing moments of their lives.” However, he does have some regrets. “There are stuff you’d change, however thank God society is altering. So my movie is sure, in some moments, to really feel outdated,” he stated. “The lack of range makes me really feel uncomfortable and a bit silly. There are three plots which have bosses and individuals who work for them.”
Thompson has additionally come to an understanding of what is made the film so enduringly beloved. “I so get it,” Thompson stated. “We neglect, time and time once more we neglect, that love is throughout us. It’s all that issues. My grandmother used to say your coronary heart’s no good as a coronary heart till it has been damaged 10 occasions. There’s one thing in regards to the scar tissue that makes it stronger.”
The particular wasn’t with out its bittersweet elements. Alan Rickman, who performed Thompson’s character’s husband, Harry, sadly could not seem, as he died in 2016.
But it wasn’t the primary time the solid has gotten again collectively. Kiera Knightley, Liam Neeson, Grant, and lots of the different stars — minus Rickman and Thompson, who felt it was too quickly after the previous’s demise — reunited for a minisequel known as “Red Nose Day Actually” in 2017, which tied up some unfastened ends from the primary film.
“The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later” is now streaming on Hulu.
