LOVE ACTUALLY Director Says Editing the Film Was a "Catastrophe" and He Just Learned People Think Andrew Lincoln's Character Is a Stalker
Love Actually is a heartwarming Christmastime classic that gives viewers a bundle of storylines that tell of hope and love throughout the holidays. It has remained a fan-favorite film for many viewers, even though a scene or two is a little cringier two decades later.
The film’s director, Richard Curtis, says he was asked about the scene in which Andrew Lincoln’s character Mark shows up to his best friend’s house to confess his unrequited love to his best friend’s wife (Keira Knightley) via an adorable cue card scene that his been borrowed from many times over.
Curtis didn’t realize that over the years, people have decided this behavior was not cool, and he was asked about it in an interview. He explained to Indiewire:
“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.”
There are many romantic gestures in popular movies that haven’t held up over the years, but when you know better, you do better, am I right? I’m glad that despite the scene, fans are still enjoying this movie and what it offers.
It was apparently a beast to make, as it tells many different stories, and has an intersection throughout. Richard Curtis talked about editing the film, saying:
“The strange thing about Love Actually is, when we finished the movie, it was a catastrophe. It took six months to re-edit it and learn all these lessons about how to do a multi-thread story.
“When I wrote Love Actually, and we had the read-through, and it sounded great, I thought you would probably do A, B, C, D, E, F, G. But actually when you’re doing multi-story, the danger is you don’t commit to any of the stories and the audience never feels engaged.
“So you kind of end up doing A, B, C, C, A, so you get into the story and then you introduce a surprise and then you end one story earlier than the others.”
It’s a tricky dance making a movie like this, but I think they pulled it off. Love Actually is available to watch with an Amazon Prime subscription.
via: CinemaBlend