Love Actually has been through the Christmas movie life-cycle quickly – becoming a widespread fan favorite then garnering belated social criticism in just two decades. Viewers often condemn the storyline about star-crossed lovers Mark (Andrew Lincoln) and Juliet (Keira Knightley), especially because Knightley was only 17 years old while filming. Knightley herself addressed these critiques last week in a new interview with The Los Angeles Times.
Asked about a rumor that she has only seen Love Actually one time, Knightley said: “Most of my films I have either never seen or I have only seen once. So it’s nothing against Love Actually.” She went on: “It’s lovely because it didn’t do as well as everyone thought it was going to when it came out. Suddenly, like three or four years later, it sort of took on a life of its own. It’s the only film I’ve had that found this life afterward. The problem is, I was on it for about five days. I was 17, so I don’t actually have any memory whatsoever of it.”
The interviewer brought up the infamous scene where Mark shows up to tell Knightley how he feels with a series of cue cards, and Knightly said: “The slightly stalkerish aspect of it — I do remember that. My memory is of [director] Richard [Curtis], who is now a very dear friend, of me doing the scene, and him going, ‘No, you’re looking at [Lincoln] like he’s creepy,’ and I’m like, [in a dramatic whisper], ‘But it is quite creepy.’ And then having to redo it to fix my face to make him seem not creepy.”
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“I mean, there was a creep factor at the time, right?” Knightley went on. “Also, I knew I was 17. It only seems like a few years ago that everybody else realized I was 17.”
Love Actually is an anthology film following several groups of characters through their holiday traditions. In Knightley’s storyline, she is a young bride marrying Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), while Lincoln plays Mark, Peter’s best friend and best man. Both Juliet and Peter are under the impression that Mark doesn’t like Juliet because he seems to avoid her. However, Juliet comes to realize that Mark is actually in love with her, and he acts this way out of “self-preservation.”
The infamous scene mentioned above is set on Christmas Eve. In it, Mark shows the cue cards to Juliet so that Peter won’t hear them talking. Juliet runs outside and kisses Mark, who then walks away saying: “Enough.” The movie’s defenders say this was meant to show that Mark had gotten the truth out of his system, and how he could be content being just friends with Juliet.
Only time will tell if Love Actually will remain relevant as a Christmas classic, but it seems like the next generation may be too critical of Knightley’s role to keep it in the Zeitgeist. For those that want to watch this year, Love Actually is streaming now on Prime Video.
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