Emma Thompson watches Love Actually every Christmas like the rest of us

love actually

Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock

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Emma Thompson watches Love Actually every Christmas like the rest of us

By Jessica Rapana

6 years ago

When the actor sees Love Actually being played during the holidays, she always watches it to the end, “because you just do”. 

The festive season does not start until I watch Love Actually.

It’s not beginning to look a lot like Christmas until I hear the words “Eight is a lot of legs David” and Christmas is not all around me until I’ve delighted in Hugh Grant dancing his way down the stairwell at 10 Downing Street to Girls Aloud.

This annual screening has become as much of a festive tradition as putting up a tree or eating my body weight in mince pies because, in the words of Emma Thompson’s character Karen, “true love lasts a life time”.     

And it turns out, Thompson feels the same. The actor, who plays the mother-of-two and is married to the wandering-eyed Harry (Alan Rickman) has revealed she, too, watches the film every Christmas.

“Whenever Love Actually comes on the telly and I happen to pass it, I keep on watching it – because you just do,” she told Hello! Magazine.

Though she says it’s not her seasonal favourite with A Wonderful Life earning that title.

Hugh Grant in Love Actually

Credit: Getty Images.

Hugh Grant, however, apparently doesn’t feel the same. The actor, who plays British Prime Minister, previously told MSN he he is baffled by the film’s hype. “I don’t know why Love Actually is still so popular,” he said. “Everyone watches it as Christmas, which is nice.”

He continued: “Do I remember anything from filming? I mean, there was the horror of that scene where I had to dance around. I suspect that was the most excruciating scene ever committed. It wasn’t easy for an Englishman in his 40s to do at 7 in the morning, stone-cold sober.”

Last month, Thompson also revealed that she would be having a gift-free Christmas this year to relieve the stress and expense of buying gifts. 

“This year we’re going to have a sustainable Christmas, no gifts. No gifts so you’re not thinking in the run-up to Christmas ‘Oh what am I could to get Aunty Dora’,” she said during an appearance on Lorraine.

“You’ve not got that terrible thing of thinking you’ve got to spend all the money but also what are you going to get them because they’ve got everything – because some of us do have way too much.

“And then you just think we could go for a walk or we could all cook together. And if people want to bring something they can make bread sauce or something, that’s the sort of thing.”

Images: Getty

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