Love Actually Director Richard Curtis Has Big Regrets - 'I Was Stupid And Wrong'
Richard Curtis has some misgivings about one of his biggest films ... and honestly, those misgivings make sense. As reported by Today.com, the esteemed British writer and director sat down during the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival with Scarlett Curtis, an activist and writer who also happens to be the director's daughter. Apparently, it took her comments to make Curtis realize that some of his movies aren't aging particularly well, including his beloved Christmas classic "Love Actually."
Referring to a plotline in the movie where people frequently call Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) — a junior member of the British prime minister's staff — "fat" or comment on her body, Curtis admitted, "I remember how shocked I was like five years ago when Scarlett said to me, 'You can never use the word fat again.'"
"And wow, you were right," the director continued, addressing his daughter directly. "I think I was behind, you know, behind the curve, and those 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, you know, as clever as I should have been." Both Curtises are absolutely correct about this particular running bit in "Love Actually," which is tasteless at best and outright offensive at worst. Thankfully, the writer-director is big enough to admit to both his daughter and the world at large that those kinds of jokes have no place in entertainment anymore.
Love Actually isn't the only movie Richard Curtis wishes he could change
"Love Actually" isn't the only movie that Richard Curtis re-examined during his chat with his daughter. Aside from the "Bridget Jones" movies, which make a habit of obsessing over the weight of Renee Zellweger's title character — which Curtis also recognized isn't a great look — he also took another look at his 1999 rom-com "Notting Hill," which stars Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts as a bookseller and American movie star who strike up an unlikely romance in the London neighborhood.
As Today.com notes, the neighborhood of Notting Hill is incredibly diverse; not only was it the site of several vital British civil rights movements in the 1950s, but it's also home to a large number of Caribbean immigrants (who actually started living in the neighborhood long before it saw the gentrification that drew people like Curtis and Grant's fictional bookseller).
"Because I came from a very un-diverse school and a bunch of university friends, [with] 'Notting Hill,' I think that I hung on to the diversity issue, to the feeling that I wouldn't know how to write those parts," Curtis explained. "And I think I was just sort of stupid and wrong about that." Curtis continued, "I feel as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn't think about it. Just didn't look outwards enough."
Love Actually is actually so, so problematic
It's good that Richard Curtis is owning up to the fact that, throughout "Love Actually," people make near-constant, completely unwarranted comments about Natalie's body, including some of her random coworkers (seriously, isn't that a flagrant HR violation?). That's not really the only issue in "Love Actually" storylines, though.
Natalie is actually the subject of a lot of pretty gross behavior. Not only is it probably a totally different HR issue for her to get involved with her boss, David (Hugh Grant again), the literal prime minister, but the visiting president of the United States (Billy Bob Thornton) is incredibly creepy toward her during a state visit. (David, naturally, damages a relationship with an international ally over the incident.)
Natalie's not the only woman treated like an object, either; Keira Knightley's Juliet has to endure terrible treatment from her husband's best friend, Mark (Andrew Lincoln), only for the guy to show up at her door and confess his love via cue cards. Throw in Harry's (Alan Rickman) predatory secretary and the fact that Jamie (Colin Firth) rebounds with and proposes to a woman with whom he quite literally cannot communicate — because she doesn't speak English — and you've got a whole handful of issues that go completely unresolved, which Curtis hasn't acknowledged.
At least there's Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) and his manager, Joe (Gregor Fisher). What they've got? That's love, actually.