10 facts you didn’t know about Love Actually – and the truth behind the Hugh Grant’s iconic dancing scene
LOVE Actually has to be one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time.
Despite the festive favourite film being released in 2003 it still remains a rom-com classic - but there might be some fun facts that you still don't know.
Keira Knightley and Thomas Brodie-Sangster were both teen actors
Although Keira Knightley's character Juliet was an adult who was getting married, the actress was only 18 when filming took place.
Meanwhile, Thomas Brodie-Sangster was 13 when the movie was filmed.
That makes him just five years younger than Keira when the movie was filmed, despite their age difference looking far greater than that.
Thomas plays lovesick Sam in the movie, who dad was played by Liam Neeson.
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The airport scenes at the beginning and end of the movie are real
The opening and closing scenes in which people reunite with loved ones at the airport are real moments.
The scenes were captured using hidden cameras at Heathrow Airport.
Director Richard Curtis explained that when they witnessed an emotional moment on camera they would have to run over and get the people to sign a waiver.
Olivia Olson, who plays Joanna, is now a voice actor
Olivia Olson plays Joanna, Sam's crush. In the film the 11-year-old shows off her incredible voice.
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Since Love Actually, she has gone on to primarily voiceover acting.
She is the voice of Bliss on The Powerpuff Girls, Marceline the Vampire Queen on Adventure Time and Vanessa Doofenshmirtz on Phineas And Ferb.
Emma Thompson's on-camera heartbreak was real
Emma Thompson drew on her own experience when portraying her reaction to discovering her husband's affair.
She channelled her heartbreak at ex-husband Kenneth Branagh’s alleged affair with Helena Bonham Carter into her acting.
She said: “I had my heart very badly broken by Ken.
“So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it.”
Emma Thompson had to re-take her crying scene 12 times
Emma must have been absolutely exhausted after re-living her emotional trauma on camera 12 times.
Curtis said: "We decided to do it like how Mike Newell did it in Four Weddings—I shot in medium-wide, and didn’t move the camera,"
"We just let it happen, and Emma walked into the room 12 times in a row and sobbed.
"It was an amazing feat of acting."
Thankfully for Emma, they gave her the rest of the day off.
Curtis reused a scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral was also penned by director Richard Curtis.
In that film, he had planned a scene where Charles, played by Hugh Grant, tries to impress a wedding guest by criticising the food, before realising she is the wedding caterer.
The scene was cut from the 1994 film, but Curtis reused the premise in Love Actually with Kris Marshall.
Tony Blair watched the film
When speaking about the relationship between the UK and the US in 2005, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a Labour Party conference:
"I know there’s a bit of us that would like me to do a Hugh Grant in Love Actually and tell America where to get off.
"But the difference between a good film and real life is that in real life there’s the next day, the next year, the next lifetime to contemplate the ruinous consequences of easy applause."
Andrew Lincoln, who plays Mark, handwrote his door-step messages
, who plays Mark, penned his romantic series of messages to Keira himself.
"It is my handwriting! It’s funny, because the art department did it, and then I said, ‘Well, can I do it?’ because I like to think that my handwriting is really good.
"Actually, it ended up with me having to sort of trace over the art department’s, so it is my handwriting, but with a sort of pencil stencil underneath."
Hugh Grant hates his dancing scene
Although Hugh Grant's dance in the corridors of Number 10 is iconic for many viewers, he says it was “absolute hell” to film.
Grant said: “There was this dance written and I thought, ‘that’s going to be excruciating’ and it has the power to be the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid,”
He added: “I certainly dreaded filming it and Richard kept saying, ‘Don’t you think we’d better rehearse the dancing scene’ and I’d say, ‘Uh yes I’ve just gotta learn some lines…my ankle hurts today’. So it was never rehearsed.”
Actually is said 23 times in the film
The word "actually" is said 23 times in the film.
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The word is used 22 times by the characters and once in the narration.
The famous line in the film's narration goes: "I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."