‘Love Actually’ director regrets Keira Knightley ‘stalker scene’: ‘We live in a very different world.’
He doesn’t love it, actually.
Writer/director Richard Curtis admitted Wednesday that he now finds the “stalker scene” in his 2003 holiday romantic comedy, “Love Actually,” to be “a bit weird.”
The iconic scene, which comes during the film’s climax, features the character Mark (played by Andrew Lincoln) arriving at the home of his best friend, Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), to wordlessly declare his love for Peter’s wife, Juliet (Keira Knightley), using a boombox and handwritten notecards.
“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, 67, told the Independent. “I think it’s a bit weird.”
During the interview, Curtis revealed that he was initially shocked to find out about the scene’s reputation.
“I remember being taken by surprise about seven years ago,” the “Notting Hill” writer stated. “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.”
“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,” Curtis laughed. “But if it’s interesting or funny for different reasons [now] then, you know, God bless our progressive world.”
Earlier this year, while being interviewed by his daughter, Scarlett, at the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham literature festival, Curtis reportedly expressed remorse over including several fat-shaming jokes in the film.
“I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me: ‘You can never use the word ‘fat’ again,'” the “Bridget Jones’ Diary” screenwriter said. “Wow, you were right. In my generation, calling someone chubby [was funny] — in ‘Love Actually,’ there were jokes about that. Those jokes aren’t any longer funny.”
The “War Horse” writer also came under fire for not having a more diverse cast in his films.
“Yes, I wish I’d been ahead of the curve. Because I came from a very undiverse school and bunch of university friends, I think that I’ve hung on, on the diversity issue, to the feeling that I wouldn’t know how to write those parts,” Curtis lamented.
“I think I was just stupid and wrong about that. I felt as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t look outwards.”
As for his daughter calling him out in a very public setting, Cutis said that he had no issue with it.
“I think she’s right on almost everything she says,” stated the filmmaker, who added that he hopes she is proud of him for “making progress.”
“I’m surprised that anyone’s surprised that a writer would look back 10 or 20 years and say, ‘We live in a very different world.'”
