Line #3 Trivia/LoveActually


1	* AbilityOverAppearance: In a sense. Sarah was written to be British like the rest of the cast. They looked at hundreds of potential actresses but Richard Curtis kept saying "I want someone like Creator/LauraLinney". Eventually the casting director snapped and said "For [[PrecisionFStrike fuck's sake]], get Laura Linney then" - and she got the part immediately. The character was then rewritten to be an American that moved to Britain.
2	* AllStarCast: Creator/LiamNeeson, Creator/AlanRickman, Creator/ColinFirth, Creator/HughGrant, Creator/EmmaThompson, Creator/RowanAtkinson and many more less internationally famous but who are very well known in Britain. Probably even more star-studded today following the respective breakouts of Creator/KeiraKnightley, Creator/ChiwetelEjiofor, Creator/MartinFreeman, and Creator/AndrewLincoln after the film's release. Even the then-child actors in the PuppyLove pairing, Creator/ThomasBrodieSangster and Creator/OliviaOlson, are actors and voice actors of some renown.
3	* AwesomeDearBoy: Kris Marshall returned his paycheck for the scene where the three American girls undress him. He said he had such a great time having three girls undress him for twenty-one takes that he was willing to do it for free, and thus returned his check for that day.
4	* BillingDisplacement: Being an big ensemble film, inevitably ''some'' actors were going to get displaced but even so the film poster has a few good examples of this; Creator/KeiraKnightley is pictured and billed but Creator/AndrewLincoln (who shared all her scenes) isn't and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (who had more screentime than either) doesn't appear either. Kris Marshall and Lúcia Moniz are likewise absent despite starring in their own subplots while OneSceneWonder Creator/RowanAtkinson gets listed.
5	* {{Blooper}}: When David (Grant) is meeting Natalie for the first time, during the continuous shot of David going into Downing Street and then meeting the people from a distance he is wearing one tie. When they do the close-ups of David's conversation he has a different colored tie on. WordOfGod says Hugh Grant did that on purpose just to amuse himself.
6	* CaliforniaDoubling: Milwaukee, WI, shows up in a brief scene, and everything from the airport sign to the bar looks like it was shot in California. It was actually shot in England. The only thing that looks right is the shot of the house at the end of the scene.
7	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
8	** In Russian-language markets the film's title is "Realnaya lyubov" (''Real Love').
9	** In the Czech Republic, the movie went by the name "Heavenly Love" (a saying expressing "The greatest love possible").
10	* CreatorBacklash:
11	** Richard Curtis has said in a 2014 [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/06/richard-curtis-love-actually-a-catastrophe-film-hugh-grant interview]] that the editing process of the film was a "catastrophe" and that it was ChristmasRushed (no pun intended).
12	** Creator/HughGrant hated the dancing scene, because he didn't think a Prime Minister would do something like that. He also half-jokingly described the film as "unwatchable" in a 2023 interview.
13	** Creator/LauraLinney said she wished that her character didn't pick up the phone while Karl was in her apartment.
14	* CreatorChosenCasting: According to the DVDCommentary, the casting director got frustrated because Richard Curtis kept rejecting every actress that auditioned for Sarah because he wanted "someone more like Laura Linney". The casting director eventually snapped that they should just offer the role to Linney, which is exactly what they ended up doing.
15	* CreatorsPest: Creator/AndrewLincoln has turned hard on Mark, outright calling him a stalker.
16	* CrossDressingVoices: In the French dub, Sam is voiced by Belgian voice actress Creator/JackieBerger (who was 55 back then).
17	* TheDanza: Creator/BillNighy playing Billy Mack.
18	** Michael Fitzgerald plays Sarah's brother Michael.
19	* DeletedRole: Most of Edward Hardwicke's role was removed from the final print. As mentioned below, Anne Reid and Frances de la Tour were also cut when their storyline was removed from the film.
20	* DeletedScene:
21	** Two additional scenarios were shot but were cut from the final version, with one involving the children's headmistress (played by Anne Reid) and her dying lesbian partner (played by Frances de la Tour).
22	** Originally, there were some small scenes that showed Sam as being a brilliant gymnast. The ending where he rushes through the airport to see Joanna would involve a long chase where he dodges objects and people through a series of jumps and gymnastic moves. All allusions to Sam's physical talent were eventually removed, and the special effects-heavy end scene was cut back to what is seen in the movie.
23	** A deleted scene explained that Mark is friends with Mia and it is his gallery (with all of the nude art) that she rents from him to organize her company's Christmas party. In the scene, she announces her plans to start an affair with her married boss, Harry. When Mark discourages this, she suggests starting an affair with him, which he politely rejects. The only remnant of this character connection that remains in this movie is during the party, when Harry asks Mia if Mark is her boyfriend before taking her to dance.
24	* EditedForSyndication: In the version edited and broadcast in the U.S. on the ABC Family Channel, the entire subplot of John and Just Judy (who spend most of their scenes completely naked as stand-ins for sex scenes) was completely edited out, and, even with those and other cuts, this movie ran three hours with commercials.
25	* EnforcedMethodActing: Rowan Atkinson did a lot of long improvisations and chatted casually with Richard Curtis about his ideas during the filming of the scene where Harry tries to buy the necklace without Karen finding out - and Alan Rickman gradually got just as angry and impatient as his character was supposed to be.
26	* FakeAmerican: Of the five "American dream girls" in this movie, only three were born in the U.S. Ivana Milicevic was born in Bosnia and later moved to the U.S., and Creator/ElishaCuthbert is Canadian.
27	* FollowTheLeader: Started a whole genre of romantic comedies with a big cast and overlapping stories (''Film/HesJustNotThatIntoYou'', ''Film/ValentinesDay'', ''Film/WhatToExpectWhenYoureExpecting'', ''Film/NewYearsEve'', ''Film/CrazyStupidLove'').
28	* HireTheCritic: The DJ is played by a comedian who criticized Creator/RichardCurtis's earlier outing ''Film/NottingHill'' for MonochromeCasting (the real-life Notting Hill neighborhood has a significant black population).
29	* LoopingLines: The scene where Aurelia removes the cup holding down a portion of the book Jamie is working on had to be redubbed due to the noise of the large fan sitting off camera.
30	* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/AlanRickman especially. He usually plays villains or dour stodgy characters. Here he plays a BumblingDad.
31	* RealLifeRelative:
32	** Thomas Brodie-Sangster is a second cousin to Hugh Grant. Richard Curtis was unaware of this until after they'd been cast.
33	** Pat the Housekeeper, who appears when David first arrives at Downing Street, is the mother of Richard Curtis' partner Emma Freud.
34	** Curtis cast his daughter Scarlett in the film; she was given the choice of being an angel or a lobster, and played the part of Lobster number 2 in the nativity play, on the condition that she met Keira Knightley.
35	* RealitySubtext: Emma Thompson said that for her crying scene she drew upon memories of discovering that her partner Creator/KennethBranagh was having an affair with Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter. Ironically, the music playing in the scene "Both Sides Now", was later covered by Bonham Carter on the 2019 Children in Need album "Got it Covered."
36	* RefittedForSequel: Colin's introduction scene was originally scripted for ''Film/FourWeddingsAndAFuneral'' but cut from that and used here. Curtis even admits in the commentary that he forgot to change one of Charles' loglines in the script, so the line is still credited to him.
37	* StarMakingRole: "Who's Creator/BillNighy? Is he famous in England or something?" Yes, a little, but this was the film that elevated him to national treasure status.
38	* ThrowItIn: Juliet wears a hat during the scene where she finds Mark's video of her wedding because Keira Knightley showed up on set that day with a massive pimple on her forehead. The cap was the only way the crew could find to hide it.
39	* UnderageCasting: As [[YoungerThanTheyLook was tradition with]] Creator/KeiraKnightley during this point in time. She was eighteen when the movie came out.
40	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
41	** When deciding to cast the part of Prime Minister David, Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Creator/MichaelGambon and Creator/MichaelCrawford were possible candidates. But all three had been unavailable at the time of filming (Hopkins was working on ''Film/TheHumanStain'', Gambon on ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' and Crawford had returned to Broadway to star in the American version of ''Theatre/DanceOfTheVampires'').
42	** Creator/RowanAtkinson's character was originally going to appear in every single story (rather than just being a OneSceneWonder) with the strong implication that he was an angel. This is hinted in the airport scene where Atkinson's character gives Daniel a knowing glance after he "accidentally" allows Sam to get through airport security, and how he just sort of shows up at the counter in the jewelry store after the previous attendant walks off with a customer. Sort of the Christmassy equivalent to Sam from ''Film/TrickRTreat''.
43	** Creator/SimonPegg also auditioned for that part.
44	** Sam was going to be a skilled gymnast, which would aid in his run through the airport. Ultimately Curtis couldn't figure out how to work it naturally into the story.
45	** 14 scenarios were written for the film, with two scrapped before filming and two scrapped after filming ended.
46	** It was not originally conceived as a Christmas film and in fact was originally written as two films with expanded versions of what would be two of the characters' storylines in the finished film.
47	** Mia was originally going to be the girl that cheated on Jamie before Sienna Guillory was cast as his unnamed girlfriend.
48	* WordOfGod: A dozen years later, Emma Freud, script writer, [[http://mentalfloss.com/article/72595/heres-what-happened-harry-and-karen-love-actually?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=KWP&kwp_0=171420&kwp_4=697174&kwp_1=353990 confirmed that Harry and Mia did have an affair and that Harry and Karen were still together at the end of the film, albeit with a strained relationship]].
49	* WordOfSaintPaul: Creator/KeiraKnightley stated that she believes Juliet ultimately stayed with her husband. Confirmed in the sequel, ''Red Nose Day Actually''.
50	* WorkingTitle: ''Love Actually is All Around''. In early marketing for the film it is punctuated as ''Love, Actually''

Context Trivia / LoveActually