Love Actually is a favourite Christmas movie for many. The 90’s cult film offers comfort and romance for the holiday season.
Of late, however, the film has come into the limelight and been criticized for its lack of diversity.
The film’s lead actress Martine McCutcheon recently spoke up about this. McCutcheon who played the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant’s) love interest in the film joked about the fat-shaming comments that were prevalent throughout the story.
Fat shaming
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In an interview with the Daily Mirror, McCutcheon defended the film.
“First of all, it’s another woman [Annie] that mentions Natalie’s weight and not Natalie herself. Of course, it’s easy to say now: ‘We would have done this, we would have done that,’ but I also think that the characters weren’t being PC,’ said McCutcheon
“They weren’t perfect humans – they were talking about their insecurities, their affairs. Natalie, bless her, is so innocent in telling the prime minister about her insecurities. I think that’s part of what made it so charming and real.
“There are a lot of things that you’re not allowed to say now, but I think that in a film that covers so much emotion and so much love, you need a little bit of reality in there – it’s not always about ticking all the boxes.”
Writer and director Richard Curtis spoke up about the controversies of late.
“There are things that you would change but thank God society is changing. My film is bound in some moments to feel out of date. The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.”
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The film has also been criticized for women having little or no agency. The only female characters who speak about something other than a man are Karen and her daughter Daisy. They discuss the lobster’s role in the nativity play.
Writer Lindy West also said that the largest example of this comes from Colin Firth’s storyline, in which he stays in a French home and falls in love with a woman hired to clean his house every day without even properly speaking to her.
“Colin Firth falls in ‘love’ with Aurelia at first sight, establishing ‘Love Actually’s central moral lesson: The less a woman talks, the more lovable she is,” said West.