Hugh Grant’s Reaction To Seeing Love Actually For The First Time Was Anything But Festive

Two decades years after Love Actually first graced our screens and became one of the most beloved – and successful – Christmas films of all time, some of its stars have been doing a bit of reminiscing.

In a 20th anniversary special released in 2022, cast members including Bill Nighy, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant came together to take a trip down memory lane.

Thankfully, most of them have long memories – including Emma, who recalls the first time that she and Hugh watched the finished version of the festive film.

Although Hugh’s response, according to Emma, wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy.

“Hugh came up behind me as we were walking out and said, ‘Is that the most psychotic thing we’ve ever been in?’” Emma recalled in the special.

Hugh then responded sheepishly: “Did I say that?”

Love Actually may be ingrained in the public consciousness, but a year earlier Hugh admitted he is a little less familiar with the details of the 2003 film – revealing he can’t actually remember what happened to his character.

Asked about the possibility of a Love Actually sequel in an interview with Digital Spy in 2021, Hugh replied: “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about that... I can’t even remember what happens in the film.”

He explained with a laugh: “It’s so long since I’ve seen it. You’d have to remind me. How do I end up?”

The Bafta wi played the UK prime minister, David, who falls for Downing Street staff member Natalie, played by former EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon.

In one of the film’s most memorable scenes, Hugh, as the PM, can be seen prancing about No.10 to the Pointer Sisters’ Jump (For My Love), which the actor later described as “absolute hell”.

He said: “There was this dance written and I thought, ‘That’s going to be excruciating’ and it has the power to be the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid.

“I certainly dreaded filming it and Richard (Curtis) kept saying, ‘Don’t you think we’d better rehearse the dancing scene’ and I’d say, ‘Uh yes I’ve just gotta learn some lines…my ankle hurts today’. So it was never rehearsed.”

“It was absolute hell,” he added.