Love Actually's Most Divisive Scene Was Originally Going To Be Even More Bizarre

Love Actually director Richard Curtis has opened up about one of the film’s most iconic scenes.

It’s tough to think of the hit Christmas rom-com without conjuring up an image of the scene towards the end of the movie, where Andrew Lincoln’s character wordlessly professes his love to his friend’s wife, played by Keira Knightley, using a series of messages written on oversized cards.

With the scene coming under scrutiny in recent years (as has the entire storyline, for that matter), Richard shared its origins during an interview with Netflix to promote his latest film That Christmas.

And it turns out, it was almost even more bizarre.

“I was in an office, and there were about four people working there,” the Bafta winner recalled. “And I said, ‘what I’m going to do today is think of four ideas and then put them to the vote’.”

Richard continued: “I think one of them was going to be an aeroplane with one of those [banners] after it. One of them was going to be him filling the mews with flowers.

“I remember the sign one, which is really stolen from a Bob Dylan video… and I went out and said to the four people working in the office, ‘if you were being flirted with, which of these would you prefer?’. And they definitely picked the cards. So, it was a community decision.”

Last month, Keira summed up the polarising scene with three succinct words, while Richard himself has admitted in recent history that he finds it “a bit weird” in hindsight.

“I remember being taken by surprise about seven years ago,” he told The Independent in 2023. “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. But if it’s interesting or funny for different reasons [now] then, you know, God bless our progressive world.”

Love Actually is streaming on Now.