42 Fun Facts About Love Actually

Who made his directorial debut with the 2003 film Love Actually?

Richard Curtis made his directing debut with Love Actually in 2003, having already written Notting Hill and co-written Bridget Jones's Diary for other directors.

Which actor plays David, the newly elected Prime Minister?

Hugh Grant plays David, the bachelor Prime Minister who falls for his junior staffer Natalie; his voiceover about the arrivals gate opens the film.

The film opens and closes with scenes at which London airport?

Heathrow's arrivals gate frames the film: the opening voiceover celebrates the reunions seen there, and the closing montage returns to the same gate one month after Christmas.

Billy Mack's novelty Christmas single is a reworked version of which song?

Billy Mack's 'Christmas Is All Around' rewrites the Troggs' 'Love Is All Around'; Wet Wet Wet's cover of the same song had spent 15 weeks at UK number one in 1994.

Jamie's housekeeper Aurélia speaks only which language?

The pair fall for each other while unable to understand a word the other says, and each secretly learns the other's language.

Sam decides to win Joanna's attention by learning which instrument for the school concert?

Sam takes up the drums, practising relentlessly so he can be on stage behind Joanna when she sings the closing number at the school Christmas concert.

Which comic actor plays Rufus, the maddeningly thorough jewellery salesman?

Rowan Atkinson plays Rufus, whose elaborate gift-wrapping nearly exposes Harry; early drafts wrote Rufus as an angel, which is why he turns up at exactly the right moments.

Jamie discovers that his girlfriend is having an affair with whom?

Jamie comes home early from Juliet and Peter's wedding to find his girlfriend in bed with his own brother, and retreats to a cottage in France to write.

Karen is devastated when she finds evidence that Harry bought Mia what?

She had discovered the box in his coat pocket and assumed it was for her.

Which actor plays Daniel, the recently widowed stepfather?

Liam Neeson plays Daniel, the widower coaching stepson Sam through his first crush; Neeson and Laura Linney, who plays Sarah, reunited a year later in the biopic Kinsey.

Who plays Harry, the design-firm boss married to Karen?

Alan Rickman plays Harry, the agency boss whose flirtation with his secretary Mia leads him to buy her a Christmas gift behind his wife Karen's back.

Which actress plays Juliet, the bride whose wedding opens the film?

Keira Knightley plays Juliet, who marries Peter in the opening wedding and later discovers Mark's video is filmed entirely of her; Knightley was 17 during the shoot.

Which real-life TV presenting duo appear as themselves interviewing Billy Mack?

Billy pointedly addresses one of them as 'Ant or Dec', a running gag about people confusing the pair.

The film's original script contained how many separate storylines?

The original script ran to 14 storylines; several were dropped, among them a filmed romance between a headmistress and her dying partner that never reached the final cut.

Billy Mack's music video is a shot-for-shot tribute to which 1986 Robert Palmer video?

Billy Mack's video apes Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love', right down to the pouting, identically dressed backing 'band' of models behind the singer.

In the US cut, which singer's 'The Trouble with Love Is' replaces a Sugababes track?

Kelly Clarkson's 'The Trouble with Love Is', from her album Thankful, replaces the Sugababes' 'Too Lost in You' in the US cut of the film.

Which girl group's cover of 'Jump (For My Love)' plays over the UK end credits?

Girls Aloud recorded 'Jump (For My Love)' for the film; it closes the UK credits, while the Pointer Sisters' original soundtracks David's dance through Downing Street.

Where were the scenes set inside 10 Downing Street actually filmed?

The 10 Downing Street interiors were built as sets at Shepperton Studios, while most of the rest of the film was shot on location around London.

The opening wedding was filmed in which London church?

Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street stood in for Juliet and Peter's wedding, where Mark's hidden brass band and choir burst into 'All You Need Is Love'.

In a cut storyline, Anne Reid's headmistress went home to her terminally ill partner, played by whom?

Frances de la Tour played Geraldine, the dying partner of Anne Reid's headmistress; their storyline, the film's only gay love story, survives only among the DVD's deleted scenes.

Colin's search for American women takes him to a bar in which city?

Colin lands in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, walks out of the snow into a bar and is instantly adopted by three women who adore his British accent.

When Jamie proposes, Aurélia reveals she has secretly been learning what?

Aurélia answers Jamie's proposal in newly learned English, her 'just in cases' becoming one of the film's most quoted lines.

After searching her street door-to-door, David finally reunites with Natalie where?

David finds Natalie at the school nativity play, the same concert Sam and Daisy are performing in; their backstage kiss is exposed when the curtain rises.

Joanna brings the house down at the school concert singing which song?

Joanna sings 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'; ten-year-old Olivia Olson's vocal was so polished the filmmakers added audible breaths so audiences would believe it was really her.

Who composed the film's orchestral score, including 'Glasgow Love Theme' and 'PM's Love Theme'?

Craig Armstrong, the Glasgow-born composer who scored Moulin Rouge!, wrote the film's orchestral score, including the 'Glasgow Love Theme' and 'PM's Love Theme'.

Who plays the swaggering visiting US President?

Billy Bob Thornton plays the US President who makes a pass at Natalie; the same year he played the foul-mouthed mall Santa of Bad Santa.

Sarah's colleague Karl is played by which Brazilian actor?

Rodrigo Santoro plays Karl, the colleague Sarah has loved for years; three years later he was nearly unrecognisable as the towering Persian king Xerxes in 300.

Harry's flirtatious secretary Mia is played by an actress from which country?

Heike Makatsch had recently played Lisa Addison in the first Resident Evil film.

Before playing Natalie, Martine McCutcheon was famous as Tiffany Mitchell in which soap?

Martine McCutcheon played Tiffany Mitchell in EastEnders from 1995 to 1998, when the character was killed off on New Year's Eve; Natalie was her first film role.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Olivia Olson reunited voicing Vanessa and her love interest in which series?

Olson said the two of them joked about 'the whole Ferb-Vanessa situation' given their Love Actually history.

The actress who plays Aurélia had represented her country at which event in 1996?

Lúcia Moniz finished sixth at the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo with 'O meu coração não tem cor', her country's best placing for more than two decades.

Which actor plays the ageing rocker Billy Mack?

Bill Nighy plays Billy Mack, the washed-up rocker flogging a Christmas single; the part turned a respected stage actor into an international film star at 53.

Which actor auditioned as a child for the role of Sam?

Joe Alwyn, then 11, auditioned unsuccessfully for Sam; he later appeared in The Favourite and Conversations with Friends and co-wrote songs with Taylor Swift under the name William Bowery.

The director has said the film's multi-strand structure owes a debt to which Robert Altman film?

Nashville, Altman's 1975 ensemble mosaic of two dozen characters, was the model the director cited, alongside Pulp Fiction, for weaving many stories into one film.

Who plays Joe, Billy Mack's long-suffering manager?

Gregor Fisher, best known as Rab C. Nesbitt, plays Joe, the manager Billy Mack walks out of Elton John's party to spend Christmas with, calling him the love of his life.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

Love Actually grossed roughly $250 million worldwide against a budget of about $40 million, with about $60 million of that total coming from North America.

The reunion short Red Nose Day Actually was first broadcast in which year?

Red Nose Day Actually aired on BBC One on 24 March 2017 as part of Comic Relief's fundraising night, with a slightly different US version on NBC that May.

In Red Nose Day Actually, Mark introduces his new wife, played by which supermodel?

Kate Moss appears as Mark's wife in the short, stepping into the doorstep scene to show Juliet he has finally moved on.

In Red Nose Day Actually, David dances through Downing Street again, this time to which song?

David reprises his Downing Street dance to Drake's 'Hotline Bling', carrying on even after tumbling down a flight of stairs.

Which actor plays Sarah's husband in the US Red Nose Day Actually's added happy ending?

Patrick Dempsey appears only in the NBC version as Sarah's husband, telling her he loves how she always answers her phone, a nod to the calls that derailed her romance with Karl.

Which cast member was cut from the sequel because 'we can't write anything for you because of Alan'?

Emma Thompson sat out the short; the actor who played her on-screen husband Harry had died in January 2016, and she agreed a Karen story without him would be too sad.

The director's daughter Scarlett chose to play what in the school show?

Scarlett, the director's daughter, picked the lobster over the angel, so the school show's 'Lobster number 2' is a family cameo.