Richard Curtis has said he would cast someone older than Keira Knightley to play her role if he made Love Actually today.
In the 2003 rom-com, Knightley was 18 years old when she played the part of Juliet, who married Peter, played by a 26-year-old Chiwetel Ejiofor. Mark meanwhile, who is in love with Juliet, was played by a 30-year-old Andrew Lincoln.
The film’s director has since addressed the controversial age gap in an interview with LADbible, where he admitted how it “didn’t seem too peculiar” at the time.
“I’m really interested in whether or not I would think ‘don’t do that’ now, ” Curtis said. “And that actually now we probably wouldn’t have gotten someone as young as Keira was in.”
He added: “The great thing now is that everybody is bold enough to say anything they don’t particularly like in what you do – kind of gives you a filter these days.
“But on the other hand, I’m thrilled we cast Keira because I thought she was perfect. And I don’t think she reads in the film as being a teenager, I think she reads as being about 23. But it’s interesting that they were far apart.”
Last month, Curtis reflected on the portrayal of women and lack of diversity in his past films, where he also called out the use of fat jokes in Love Actually.
“I remember how shocked I was five years ago when [his daughter] Scarlett said to me, ‘You can never use the word ‘fat’ again.’ Wow you were right,” Curtis said. “In my generation calling someone chubby [was funny] – in Love Actually there were jokes about that. Those jokes aren’t any longer funny.”
He added: I was think I was unobservant and not as clever as I should have been.”
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