Love Actually: what did Emma Thompson say about being paid for iconic movie, why doesn’t she rewatch the film?

Star of Christmas movie Love Actually, Emma Thompson, has spoken about her bad experiences making the film
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Love Actually has become a classic Christmas film, and a staple of holiday viewing for many, but Dame Emma Thompson, who starred in the movie, doesn’t just have fond memories of the production.

Alongside Thompson, the film boasted an all star cast of British actors including Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Alan Rickman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rowan Atkinson, and Bill Nighy.

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The film, directed by Richard Curtis, follows nine different interconnected stories of love and heartbreak over the Christmas period, from the Prime Minister falling in love with his secretary, to a man who hides his feelings for his best friend’s wife.

Emma Thompson as Karen in Love ActuallyEmma Thompson as Karen in Love Actually
Emma Thompson as Karen in Love Actually

Who did Emma Thompson play in Love Actually?

Thompson plays Karen, a stay at home mum to two children with her husband Harry, played by Rickman. Karen finds an expensive gold necklace in a gift box in Harry’s coat pocket and, thinking that he’s bought it for her as a Christmas present, puts it back and waits to unwrap the gift.

On Christmas Eve, the family decide to open one present each, and Karen picks a gift she thinks is the necklace, but when she opens it she finds that it’s a Joni Mitchell CD and realises that Harry bought the necklace for someone else.

In one of the film’s standout emotional scenes, Karen pretends in front of the children to be pleasantly surprised by the present, she then excuses herself and cries alone in her bedroom surrounded by family photos. Karen later confronts Harry about his infidelity and asks what he would do if he was her. The couple stay together, but their relationship has been forever changed by Harry’s actions.

Love Actually was Emma Thompson’s first Christmas film Love Actually was Emma Thompson’s first Christmas film
Love Actually was Emma Thompson’s first Christmas film

What did Emma Thompson say about being paid for Love Actually?

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Emma Thompson appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon where talk turned to the 2003 film. Thompson said: "I don’t think I was very well paid for that. There was that terrible trailer with the loo that really stank and had that sort of… That’s the things you remember, not the good ones."

Thompson explained that she doesn’t rewatch the film because she finds herself dwelling on the negative aspects of the production process which regular audiences won’t have seen.

However, she does still have a soft spot for the movie - speaking on the ABC Love Actually: 20 Years Later special, she said: "I think we forget, time and time again we forget, that love is all that matters, it’s all that matters. [Curtis] reminds us in the film that’s very funny about love and all its messiness, its unexpectedness and that you’ll find love in the weirdest places.

Love Actually made £200 million off a £30 million budget, making it a major box office success - and it is in the top 10 highest grossing Christmas films of all time. Emma Thompson’s salary for the film is not known, although it has been revealed that model Claudia Schiffer, who played Liam Neeson’s love interest received £200,000 for her 60-second cameo.

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That works out at more than £3,000 per second of footage, in all likelihood making her the highest paid member of the cast in relation to screen time, and by this metric Thompson could feel hard done by.

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