Richard Curtis has revealed that Love Actually almost included an LGBTQ+ romantic storyline, but it was “cut out”.
The 67-year-old screenwriter is famous for writing the 2003 Christmas hit Love Actually, which follows eight different couples through the festive season.
But Richard has revealed that an additional LGBTQ+ storyline was originally incorporated into the plot, but it was later cut from the film.
Richard has previously spoken out about the lack of diversity in Love Actually and criticized his jokes about people's heights in the film.
Now, speaking to Katie Strick on the London Love Stories podcast, Richard admitted that he felt like he had “let himself down” by cutting the LGBTQ+ story from the final cut.
Richard Curtis has revealed that Love Actually almost included an LGBTQ+ romantic storyline, but it was “cut”.
The 67-year-old screenwriter is famous for writing Love Actually in 2003, in which he follows eight different couples during the festive season (pictured: Keira Knightley and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the film).
“There are things about love that I wish I had done,” Richard said, speaking on a Christmas episode of the podcast in aid of Comic Relief.
“If I had 10 stories – we actually had some kind of LGBTQ story, but it got cut and I feel like I left myself down there.”
Richard then went into detail about some other changes he would make to the film if he were writing it today, as he addressed the lack of diversity.
“The issue of diversity is very different now and it would have been nice to make the film culturally richer,” he said.
“Having celebrated Hanukkah and Diwali, I didn't focus on that. So I think if I did it again it would have a wider distribution than the film does now.”
When asked if he would now make a new version of Love Indeed, Richard insisted he had no intention of recreating the Christmas classic.
He explained: “I don't think I'll do another one because Love Actually was one of the films I came closest to being a disaster. Two months before it came out, it was an absolute mess. So I feel like I got lucky once and I don’t want to risk it again.”
The film is now known for its intertwining storylines, but Richard revealed that the script was originally intended to be much more linear before deciding it wasn't interesting enough.
He said: “With all these stories it was very difficult to keep people interested. “I originally wrote the film in the form A, B, C, D, E, F, G – I would do part of the film one at a time write.
Richard has admitted he felt he had “let himself down” by cutting the LGBTQ+ storyline from the final cut of the hit Christmas film
Richard has previously spoken about the lack of diversity in Love Actually and his jokes about people's heights in the film (pictured: Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon in the film).
“But when I saw the film, I felt like I didn't really care about the stories. “The moment you did something more, you lost interest.”
“The finished film is like I threw out the original script and put it back together in a completely different order,” he added.
This isn't the first time Richard has addressed Love Actually's lack of diversity and its jokes about women and people's body sizes.
Last year, Richard admitted that Love Actually's lack of diversity now made him feel “uncomfortable” and “a bit stupid”.
“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.
Richard recently said he recounted how his 28-year-old activist daughter Scarlett made it clear to him that his jokes about women and people's body sizes in the film were no longer funny.
At the Cheltenham Literature Festival earlier this year, the director told how he promised his daughter Scarlett he would never make “fat” jokes again.
In Love Actually, Martine McCutcheon's character Natalie – the Prime Minister's spokesperson – was portrayed as a “chubby” with a “big ass”.
And in the 2001 adaptation of Bridget Jones's Diary – for which Richard wrote the screenplay – Renée Zellweger's character was described as having “tree trunk thighs.”
Richard has since shared during an interview with Scarlett 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.
Richard said he recently told how his activist daughter Scarlett, 28, (both pictured in July 2018) made it clear to him that his jokes about women and people's body sizes in the film were no longer funny
As well as Scarlett, Richard has children Jake, 26, Charlie, 22, and Spike with his wife Emma Freud (pictured in March 2022), whom he married this year after 33 years together
“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.”
Richard 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 that they are.” old-fashioned and somehow wrong.
“So 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.”
In addition to Scarlett, Richard has children Jake, 26, Charlie, 22, and Spike with his wife Emma Freud, whom he married this year after 33 years together.