'Love Actually' Director Says Film's Lack Of Diversity Makes Him Feel 'A Bit Stupid'

Richard Curtis, along with several cast members of the film, were featured in a ABC News special celebrating the movie's release nearly 20 years ago.
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“Love Actually” writer/director Richard Curtis has some regrets about his 2003 cult Christmas classic.

During an ABC News special that premiered on Tuesday titled “The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later,” Curtis told Diane Sawyer he was discomfited by one aspect of the film.

“The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid,” he said about the film, which has a primarily white cast and no LGBTQ couple storyline.

Despite the movie’s lasting impact on viewers, its critics have also called out the power dynamics in some of the characters’ workplace relationships.

Curtis appeared to address parts of the film that he called “out of date.”

“There are things you’d change, but thank God society is changing,” he told Sawyer. “So my film is bound in some moments to feel out of date.”

The cast of "Love Actually," which was released in 2003, at a premiere in Paris.
The cast of "Love Actually," which was released in 2003, at a premiere in Paris.
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis via Getty Images

The ABC News special also featured several cast members of the popular movie, including Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson and Olivia Olson.

The cast reflected on some of the film’s most memorable moments.

Grant, who played a fictional British prime minister in one of the movie’s intertwined love stories, described his infamous dance scene to Sawyer as “the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid.”

In 2017, the cast reunited for a mini-sequel titled “Red Nose Day Actually” to support the British charity Comic Relief, which aims to fight poverty.

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