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Love Actually Is So White It’s ‘Stupid’

Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually. Photo: Peter Mountain/Universal/Dna/Working Title

The beloved Christmas rom-com Love Actually is very white and very straight. That fact makes writer-director Richard Curtis uneasy, nowadays at least. In The Laughter and Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, celebrating the film’s 20th anniversary with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and cast members Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy, and Laura Linney, Curtis brought up the film’s lack of diversity when asked if any aspect of the 2003 box-office hit makes him wince today. “There are things that you would change,” he began. “But thank God society is changing. My film is bound in some moments to feel out of date. The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.” The director added vaguely, “There is such extraordinary love that goes on every minute in so many ways, all the way around the world, and makes me wish my film was better.” Love Actually features only heterosexual relationships (a liaison between Anne Reid and Frances de la Tour was edited out of the film), and the sole actor of color is Chiwetel Ejiofor.

So what’s stopping the British screenwriter from penning the next Love Actually that’s not so white and straight? Two decades ago would’ve been nice, but it’s never too late to produce a rom-com ensemble film with a diverse cast. Here’s an idea: Pay the now Academy Award–nominated Ejiofor good money for another movie, build a cast around him, and have it in theaters by the next holiday season. Let those feelings of guilt drive another holiday rom-com for people to reference yearly. Baby Jesus knows we need it.

Love Actually Is So White It’s ‘Stupid’