Unlike the rest of the world, Emma Thompson doesn’t feel like rewatching Love, Actually this season! In a recent episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the veteran actress expressed that she finds it particularly hard to rewatch the beloved 2003 holiday classic. Written and directed by Richard Curtis, the hugely popular Love, Actually had a star-studded cast including Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Andrew Lincoln, Martin Freeman, Rodrigo Santoro, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and others, alongside Emma Thompson.
The Honest Confession
The 63-year-old actress appeared on the show to promote her upcoming holiday film Matilda the Musical. The enthusiastic host asked Thompson if she ever tuned into one of the many, many channels showing Love, Actually for Christmas. To that, the actress promptly answered that the film was 20 years ago and she hasn’t rewatched it since. Fallon then pushed further by saying that it must be fun for the actress to remember and reminisce about the film and the shooting days. But he again got snubbed by the actress, who said that the experience of shooting Love, Actually was not very fond, the trailer was terrible, and she was underpaid for the movie too.
The Therapeutic Effect
On another talk show, Live With Kelly and Ryan, Emma Thompson said that she thinks of Love, Actually as a possible “form of therapy” for the fans who rewatch it every holiday. As she explained, the evergreen popularity of this holiday flick is much more about the audience and the fan base than about the movie itself. According to the actress, the movie shows that we humans like to see things that most remind us of the importance of love, ignoring all the pains and sufferings, and that’s kind of “weird” because it often masks or deviates from the original reality of life.