By Katherine Lawton and Matt Strudwick 11:38 Oct 16, 2023, updated 3:13 p.m. Oct 16, 2023
- Scarlett Curtis, 28, had a successful career as a feminist activist
She hit the headlines this week when she made her famous father admit he was “stupid and wrong” for making jokes about people’s heights in his films.
Richard Curtis made the confession at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to his 28-year-old daughter Scarlett, who made a cameo appearance in his 2003 hit film Love Actually.
But Scarlett is no stranger to calling out her family, having previously branded her great-great-grandfather Sigmund Freud as “sexist” and “horrible”.
Scarlet, whose mother is presenter Emma Freud, was just eight when she appeared in Love Actually and played a lobster in the school nativity play.
As an adult, she pursued a career as a feminist writer, curating the Sunday Times bestseller Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and creating the artwork for Ed Sheeran’s seventh album Autumn Variations.
During her conversation with her father, she had him say that he regretted a lot of his work and promised never to use the words “fat” and “chubby” again.
In the 2001 adaptation of Bridget Jones’ Diary – for which Curtis wrote the screenplay – Renée Zellweger’s character was described as having “tree trunk thighs”.
Writer Scarlett Curtis has probably always had artistic genes with many famous people in her family. Scarlett (right) made a cameo appearance in her father’s popular Christmas hit, Love Actually: Four Weddings and a Funeral. Writer Richard Curtis says his daughter Scarlett Curtis (right) saw that his jokes about women and people’s heights in his films were no longer funny
And in Love Actually, which Curtis directed and wrote, Martine McCutcheon’s character Natalie – the prime minister’s spokesperson – was portrayed as a “chubby” with a “big ass”.
Curtis admitted that those jokes are no longer funny two decades later.
According to The Times, he told the audience: “I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me, ‘You can never use the word ‘fat’ again,” he said.
“Wow, you were right. In my generation, people call someone chubby [was funny] – There were jokes about it in there. “These jokes aren’t funny anymore.”
Scarlett isn’t the only Curtis child to ever perform on stage, as last year it was revealed that her brother Spike Curtis was the “random” fan chosen from the crowd to perform with Dave at Coachella.
The Love Tactical author’s son stunned the audience at the California festival with his rapping skills as he took to the stage to sing alongside British rapper Thiago Silva.
Scarlett made her TV writing debut this year in the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s teen romance The Summer I Turned Pretty. Scarlett isn’t the only Curtis child to ever perform on stage, as it was revealed last year that her brother Spike Curtis is the one who was picked at random from the crowd to perform with Dave at Coachella (above). Renée Zellweger – pictured as Bridget Jones in 2001 – is said to have “tree trunk” thighs. Zellweger (pictured in Bridget Jones’ Diary) told British Vogue in 2016 how she never understood the fascination with the figure’s weight and said it was completely normal. Scarlett described her great-great-grandfather Sigmund Freud (pictured) as “sexist” and “horrible”.
Her maternal grandfather, Clement Freud – a broadcaster, MP and chef – was exposed as a child molester in 2016, seven years after his death.
The director has previously admitted his children didn’t like his jokes and said his films were starting to look like “historical documents”.
Speaking to Craig Oliver on his Desperately Seeking Wisdom podcast in January last year, The Blackadder and Mr Bean creator said: “In all my conversations with my kids now, they don’t like 20 percent of my jokes because they think “They are old.” somehow made up and wrong.
“I’m really interested in how a generation that grew up to be passionate, angry and pedantic about these issues can change things for the better.”
Curtis previously admitted that the lack of diversity in the 2003 Christmas classic Love Actually now makes him feel “uncomfortable” and “a bit stupid”. The Prime Minister’s PA, Natalie in Love Actually, played by Martine McCutcheon, was famously portrayed as the “chubby one” and a “big ass” but he defended himself for portraying a gay one in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral Couple had (pictured: Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell)
In a separate interview, he admitted that Love Indeed’s lack of diversity now makes him feel “uncomfortable” and “a bit stupid” given the film’s 20th anniversary.
Speaking to host Diane Sawyer for the ABC special The Laughter and Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, he admitted he thinks the 2003 Christmas classic is “dated” in some moments.
“There are things you would change, but thank God society is changing. So my film is bound to feel dated at some moments,” he said.
“I mean, there are things about the film, you know, the lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a little bit stupid.”
Curtis and his wife have been together for 33 years. In addition to Scarlett and Spike, they have two other children, sons Jake and Charlie.
Scarlett even created the artwork for Ed Sheeran’s seventh album Autumn Variations