Skip to main content

Even though most famous stars in the classic holiday movie Love Actually filmed their scenes separately, they still grew close during production. In fact, they formed their own small community in London. According to Bill Nighy, the Love Actually cast all lived in a trailer park while making the film.

'Love Actually' cast, including Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Keira Knightley, pose for a picture together. Thompson wears a pink dress. Grant wears a black suit over a light blue button-up shirt. Knightley wears a black dress.
Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Keira Knightley | Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images

The cast of ‘Love Actually’ lived in a trailer park during production

The Guardian interviewed both Love Actually cast member Bill Nighy and director and writer Richard Curtis about filming the movie and behind-the-scenes secrets.

“We didn’t all film together, but we had a big trailer park for all the cast,” Nighy revealed. “There were so many famous people in there, we used to talk about being on Liam Neeson Way or Emma Thompson Road or Hugh Grant Avenue. And it was a masterpiece of diplomacy, too; we all had the same size and type of trailer.”

It’s hard to imagine what a trailer park full of famous people, including Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson, would look like. But we have to believe that they had a good time. And since Love Actually contains 10 different individual stories, it’s great that the cast members who didn’t get to work with each other at least got to hang out during their downtime.

The ‘Love Actually’ cast could have been even bigger, according to the director

Love Actually already features an expansive cast because of its 10 different love stories. But Richard Curtis claimed that the original script had four more narratives.

“I love multiple storylines, but I soon realized how tricky they are,” Curtis said. “At first, we had 14 different love stories, but the result was too long, so four ended up going, including two we’d actually shot.”

The director and writer continued, “One was based on a poster in Alan Rickman’s office of two women in Africa. The camera actually went into the poster and heard them talking about their daughters’ love lives. Another involved Emma Thompson’s son getting into trouble at school and the camera following the harsh headmistress home.”

We are sure that most Love Actually fans would not have protested even more love stories and famous cast members. But that would have meant renting out a larger trailer park.

Related

‘Love Actually’: Andrew Lincoln Isn’t Impressed By His Character’s Romantic Gestures

Director Richard Curtis discusses the cast

Richard Curtis talked about the casting process for Love Actually with The Guardian. He revealed, “We thought we had a good mix of people who were quite famous and those who weren’t. Funny how unbalanced it all looks today, now that Martin Freeman is the Hobbit, January Jones is in Mad Men, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is in 12 Years a Slave.”

“I knew from the start I wanted Hugh Grant as the prime minister and Emma Thompson as his sister,” Curtis continued. “And I wrote Martine McCutcheon’s part for her, too. I even called the character Martine, though I had to change it before the read-through, so she didn’t think she’d already got it.”

He added, “Bill Nighy’s was the strangest casting. I had two famous guys in mind to play the aging rocker Billy Mack, and I couldn’t decide who to ask. But at the read-through, Bill did it so perfectly he became a definite yes. I’ve never told anyone else who I wanted. I’ll put it in my will.”

Unfortunately, Love Actually is not on any streaming service. So if you want to get your holiday fix from this dynamic cast, then you’ll have to pay for Love Actually on VOD.

Best in Entertainment