Richard Curtis admits diversity in films is ‘natural’ to him now after previous regrets
Love Actually, Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral, what do they have in common other than being absolute banger rom-com flicks?
Richard Curtis, of course. The writer is the creator of the beloved films (you know you’ll be watching Love Actually at Christmas) and now, he has a new one coming out.
Curtis is the man responsible for those absolute classics and more, including the likes of Mr Bean’s Holiday, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Yesterday.
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But after jokes about women’s body size in Love Actually and a lack of Black characters in Notting Hill, the writer previously opened up about his regrets.
His daughter, Scarlett, questioned him about all this at Cheltenham literature festival, as he wished he’d ‘been ahead of the curve’.
With nearly all the eight couples in Love Actually being Caucasian, Curtis also told Diane Sawyer: “The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.”
He explained to Scarlett he reckons he ‘hung on’ to the ‘feeling that he wouldn’t know how to write those parts [for people of colour]’.
Curtis added: “I think I was just sort of stupid and wrong about that.”
Ahead of his new Christmas movie Genie, LADbible spoke to the creator about the importance of diversity in films.
Curtis explains he reckons it’s something that’s ‘natural’ to him now, 20 years on since his first festive film.
“I think this is the point, not to sort of look back at your work and say ‘that was strange’, is strange.
“I live with four kids who are approaching or in their 20s and so the texture of how we talk about things and what we think is right and wrong has changed.”
Far different to Love Actually, Genie features a Black family at its centre, starring Gangs of London’s Paapa Essiedu, as lead character Bernard.
“I'm glad as it were diversity has come at me and that it's part of how I think about the world in a way that it probably wasn't part of what I thought about the world when I made Four Weddings,” Curtis adds.
Genie also features Melissa McCarthy as Flora, the unlimited wish-granting genie, which was a casting moment the writer compared to casting Julia Roberts.
“I've actually got a photograph of me receiving that phone call. And this was one of those moments, you know, because I do think she's [McCarthy] a marvellous, great comedian. But also, you know, she's such a sort of tender and warm person in Can You Ever Forgive Me, and she was really touching and Nine Perfect Strangers this year,” Curtis says.
“And this movie has that mixture between comedy and kind of emotional, it's as much a film about friendship as it is a film about Christmas. So I mean, it's one of the happiest bits of casting in my career.”
Genie is a little unlike Curtis’ previous work as the ‘fairy-tale comedy’ sees a workaholic bloke (Essiedu) in New York City (yep, the writer is ditching London), who enlists the help of magical genie Flora to help him win his wife and daughter back before Christmas day.
Sky Original, Genie will be available on Sky Cinema and streaming service NOW from 1 December
Topics: Celebrity, Christmas, TV and Film, UK News
Jess Battison