Love Actually is still Christmas favourite 🎄

Emma Thompson ‘so glad’ Love Actually is still Christmas favourite

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Thomas Brodie-Sangster starred with Emma in Love Actually and Nanny McPhee.

He is a talented young actor who started acting when he was only 10.

Thomas was just 12-years old when he appeared in the holiday romantic comedy Love Actually and captured hearts with his role as Sam, a boy who had just lost his beloved mother and had a crush on Joanna, played by Olivia Olson.

From that moment on, his career began to take off, taking him to Game of Thrones, the Maze Runner film saga and finally The Queen’s gambit.

Nanny McPhee, the famous comedy set in England in the late 1800s, introduces us to Emma Thompson as Nanny, the last hope for the widower Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) to give some education to his seven unleashed children.

Released two years after Love Actually, Nanny McPhee shows us Thomas as Simon, the older brother of seven children, with a flawless interpretation. He is one of Mr. Brown’s sons, in a reinterpretation of the great classic Mary Poppins, based on Christianna Brand‘s successful children’s books.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Emma Thompson

Love actually (2003)

Love Actually is a 2003 Christmas-themed comedy film that features an ensembled cast of many famous British actors. The screenplay studies in deep the different aspects of love as shown through ten stories involving people, different each other in lifestyle and background.

The story starts on December and is played out in a weekly countdown culminating on Christmas.

Harry (Alan Rickman) and Karen (Emma Thompson) are a happily married couple. He is the director of a design agency and his new secretary begins to make him very clear advances and eventually he, flattered by the situation, buys her an expensive necklace.

Karen discovers the necklace in Harry’s coat pocket and assumes it is a gift for her. Then he gives her a similarly shaped box, and when she opens it, she is heartbroken to find it is a Joni Mitchell CD so she finally understands that the necklace was for another woman. She later confronts Harry and asks him what he would do if he were her. He feels ashamed and admits his foolishness.

Emma plays a heart wrenching scene in which she moves away for a moment from the room where her family is and heads to her bedroom, where she allows herself to give into tears, as Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” plays.

According to some film critics this is the best scene of the whole film, Emma said that it is not difficult to feel involved in situations like this because they are very common and people feel emotionally involved.

“That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through,” Emma told to The Telegraph. “I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it. I’ve had so much bloody practise at crying in a bedroom, then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer”.

The film also stars Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Liam Neeson and others.

Emma Thompson and…

… Colin Firth!

Colin Firth is a British actor.

Emma and Firth have made three films together (Love actually, Nanny McPhee and Bridget Jones’s baby) but they have never acted the role of a married couple.

They share passion for Italy and they both have a house in Italy.

Following the referendum that brought Britain out of the EU, Firth applied for “dual citizenship (British and Italian)” to have the same passports as his wife and children. His request has been approved on 22 September 2017.

They also share a passion for volunteering and activism: Colin Firth has been a long-standing supporter of Survival International and he is also a supporter of the Refugee Council.

Emma Thompson and…

… Alan Rickman!

Emma acted alongside Alan in a number of films and the pair became great friends over the course of their careers.

Since co-starring in Sense and Sensibility they worked together on The Winter Guest, Judas Kiss, Love Actually, Harry Potter and The Song Of Lunch.

Theirs was a wonderful example of an affectionate and respectful friendship.

Shortly after Alan’s death, Emma released a heartbreaking statement, saying goodbye to her longtime friend.

“Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye. What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humor, intelligence, wisdom and kindness. His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was — his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him. He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next. I consider myself hugely privileged to have worked with him so many times and to have been directed by him. He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics. I trusted him absolutely. He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again”.

When a journalist asked them if there was anything they hadn’t done together, Emma answered: “We’ve had no children, but pretty much everything else.”

Emma Thompson and…

…Hugh Grant!

When Graham Norton asked Hugh Grant how he felt about the leading ladies he’s worked with, he said Emma Thompson is “clever, funny, and mad as a chair”.

Emma and Hugh worked together in Impromptu, The remains of the day, Sense and sensibility and Love actually.

Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson – Sense and sensibility

Edward’s proposal scene is very romantic. When Elinor finds out that he is not married, she bursts into uncontrollable tears. This has become an iconic scene, but during the shooting Hugh Grant said: “Are you going to cry all the way through my speech? You absolutely can’t, you’ll ruin it!” and Emma answered: “I promise I won’t but let’s do it, that’s funny!”.

Crying scenes

In my opinion Emma is the most capable actress in playing scenes of crying.

There are several notable scenes but for me her most memorable crying scenes are 6:

1 – Sense and sensibility, Elinor eventually cries from happiness when Edward reveals he’s not married.
2 – Love actually, she cries for anger and disappointment because of her husband’s betrayal. She behaves with great dignity, crying all alone in the bedroom, and then she comes back to her children, with a smile on her face. Astonishing performance!
3 – Saving Mr Banks, crying gives her relief after pretending for so many years.
4 – The children act, Fiona cries for the sense of powerlessness and defeat facing death.
5 – The remains of the day, she is finally resigned because she understands that Mr Stevens shall never declare his love and all her dreams are broken.
6 – The remains of the day, Miss Kenton cries for the regrets of what could have been and has not been. Unfortunately it’s too late and it’s time to say goodbye. Very sad moment.