Keira Knightley on “that” scene from Love Actually

To me, you are…creepy. It’s one thing to show up at a woman’s house unannounced while her husband is inside. But it’s another thing entirely to do so with hand-written cue cards declaring your love for her. To think, this was once considered one of the most romantic scenes in any Christmas movie. But today, that moment in Love Actually stands as peak creep, as its target, Keira Knightley, has no problem pointing out.

As the holidays near, Love Actually will be on many-a Christmas movie advent calendar, what with the romance of the season hitting everybody from love-struck kids to adulterous husbands. But its most famous scene still remains its most eyebrow-raising for multiple reasons. As Knightley – who played Juliet, the object of Andrew Lincoln’s affection – told The Los Angeles Times, “The slightly stalkerish aspect of it — I do remember that. My memory is of [director] Richard [Curtis], who is now a very dear friend, of me doing the scene, and him going, ‘No, you’re looking at [Lincoln] like he’s creepy,’ and I’m like [in a dramatic whisper], ‘But it is quite creepy.’ And then having to redo it to fix my face to make him seem not creepy.”

So that’s one thing, but Keira Knightley – who was coming up hot in the industry with Bend It Like Beckham and that summer’s Pirates of the Caribbean – took another issue entirely. “I mean, there was a creep factor at the time, right? Also, I knew I was 17. It only seems like a few years ago that everybody else realized I was 17.”

Knightley isn’t alone in her evaluation of that Love Actually scene. In addition to a wealth of articles written about the “ick factor”, the movie’s director can’t help but admit that that scene is dated and off-putting.

As for how that scene panned out for Lincoln’s Mark, Juliet didn’t ditch her husband for him, but she did chase him down and plant one on him, thus making yet another unfaithful spouse in Love Actually. Ah, holiday romance!

What is your take on the now-infamous scene from Love Actually? Does it impact your viewing of it?