Christmas rom com Love Actually turns 20 this year – and we feel ancient!
Writer and director Richard Curtis has described in a DVD that a lesbian love story woven into the story had to be cut from the final version when an element in another story was changed. The plot involved Anne Reid, the ‘scary’ headmistress of the school featured in the film and a lesbian whose lover, played by Frances de la Tour, was terminally ill.
In an interview with The Independent from September 2022, de la Tour recalled her deleted scene. “We had a lovely scene,” she told the publication. “And I think it was the only gay scene. It’s odd that they cut it. Maybe it was too dark to bring into it. Because it ended up being quite a light and fluffy film, didn’t it?”
Richard Curtis reportedly wrote a note to de la Tour and apologised for the scene being cut from the film. “We’re terribly sorry, but it’s got to be cut,” Curtis told de la Tour.
