“To me, you are perfect.” Words like that could make many a woman swoon. And it worked for Keira Knightley in 2003’s Love Actually. But it may not fly today, presumably because you’d be shot if you tried to pull what Andrew Lincoln did. Now, 20 years after its release, director Richard Curtis acknowledges just how creepy the whole scene is.
While it took quite some time for Curtis to learn of the current reception of Love Actually’s most famous scene, he knows now that Lincoln’s Mark comes off as a stalker. “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.’…I think it’s a bit weird. I mean, I remember being taken by surprise about seven years ago, 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.”
But it’s not just Richard Curtis that has a questionable view of parts of Love Actually, but some of the ensemble cast, like star Hugh Grant, who played the prime minister who gets entangled with Martine McCutcheon’s Natalie. As Emma Thompson, who played Grant’s sister Karen, recalled last year, Grant wondered if they were actually making “the most psychotic thing we’ve ever been in.” Based on some modern interpretations, actually…
Love Actually grossed about as much in the States as it did its home country ($59.7 vs. $62.7 million) but would take in nearly a quarter-million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2003, even topping another annual favorite, Elf.
Do you think the scene in question from Love Actually is creepy or romantic? Is the movie on your list of must-watch Christmas movies? Let us know!