Remember Kiera Knightley’s character’s wedding dress in Love Actually? The original design was VERY different
WITH Christmas on the approach it’s time to dig out the festive films.
And who could resist a bit of Love Actually to get the good feelings going?
However, fans of the film might well be surprised at how one of the big scenes could have been dramatically different.
And it all comes down to costume design.
According to , who interviewed Love Actually’s costume designer Joanna Johnston, key character Juliet’s wedding dress was originally planned to be completely different.
In fact Juliet, who was played by British actress Keira Knightley, was supposed to rock a crop top down the aisle for her nuptials.
Joanna told the magazine: “Richard Curtis [the screenwriter] wanted (Keira’s) character to be kind of sexy, even as a bride.
“He wanted her to be dressed ready for the end of the scene where they’re partying, so he had this idea of a crop top, with a bare tummy.”
However, it wasn’t to be.
Joanna felt that a crop top might have been a bit too much for the scene.
She added: “I told Richard, ‘You don’t want a bare tummy going into church!’
“So I went for a sheer, layered style instead with petal details underneath; gauzy and multi-layered.”
And that’s how Keira, as Juliet, ended up marrying hubby Peter in THAT dress.
No wonder Mark couldn’t look away…
Love Actually fans might also be interested to know that the adorable schoolgirl with the amazing voice from the film has grown up to be seriously stunning.
Joanna was played by talented actor and singer Olivia Olson who was just 11 years old at the time Love Actually was filmed, and is now 23 and carving out a career as a singer and voice-over artist.
Audiences were enthralled with Joanna and Sam’s cute love story, which wasn’t sad like Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman’s, or creepy like Andrew Lincoln’s who held up signs declaring his love to his best friend’s wife.
In the Christmas film, Olivia played the crush of schoolboy Sam who learned to play the drums to impress her after his mother died.
At the end of the film, he chased her through the airport on Christmas Eve to declare his love before she moved back to America and managed to bag himself a kiss on the cheek as a reward.
Although most of us will remember her for her iconic performance of Mariah Cary’s, All I Want For Christmas, in the school play, with love struck Sam backing up Joanna on drums.
Richard Curtis who made Love Actually later revealed that Olivia’s version of the song was so good, he was worried people wouldn’t believe it was actually her singing, so edited in post-production to make it sound more realistic.
Recently Olivia voiced the character Vanessa Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb and currently voices the Marceline the Vampire Queen in Adventure Time.
As if acting and singing wasn’t enough, Olivia is also a talented writer, having written a part of the best selling adventure Time Encyclopedia.