Richard Curtis reveals Love Actually almost had an LGBTQ+ storyline but it was ‘cut out’ as he shares what he would change about the Christmas hit

Richard Curtis has revealed that Love Actually almost contained an LGBTQ+ romantic storyline, but it was “cut”.

The 67-year-old screenwriter is best known for writing the 2003 Christmas hit Love Actually, which follows eight different couples during the holiday season.

But Richard revealed that an additional LGBTQ+ storyline was originally included in the plot, but it was later cut from the film.

Richard has previously spoken out about the lack of diversity in Love Actually and criticized its jokes about the size of people in the film.

Now, speaking with Katie Strick on London love stories podcast, Richard admitted that he felt he had “let himself down” by cutting the LGBTQ+ story from the final edit.

“There are things in Love Actually that I would have liked to have done,” Richard said during a Christmas episode of the podcast in support of Comic Relief.

“If I had 10 stories—we actually had sort of an LGBTQ story, but it got cut, and I feel like I let myself down there.”

Richard went on to detail some of the changes he would make to the film if he were writing it today, and addressed the lack of diversity.

“The diversity issue is very different now, and it would be great to make the film more culturally rich,” he said.

“To spend Hanukkah or Diwali, I didn’t focus on it. So I think if I did it again, it would have a wider distribution than the film has now.”

When asked if he would now make a new version of Love Actually, Richard said he had no intention of recreating the Christmas classic.

He explained: “I don’t think I’ll do another one because Love Actually was one of my films that actually came closest to disaster. Two months before the publication, complete chaos reigned. So I feel like I got lucky once and I don’t want to take that risk again.”

The film is now known for its intertwining storylines, but Richard revealed that the script was originally much more linear before he decided it wasn’t interesting enough.

He said: “With all these stories it was very difficult to keep people interested. I originally wrote the film as A, B, C, D, E, F, G – I would have one part of the film one after the other.

“But when I saw the film, I felt like I didn’t care about any of the stories. The moment you’ve done a little more, you’ve lost interest.”

“The latest film looks like I threw out the original script and put it together in a completely different order,” he added.

This isn’t the first time Richard has addressed the lack of diversity on Love Actually and its jokes about women and people’s sizes.

Last year, Richard admitted that the lack of diversity in Love Actually now makes him feel “uncomfortable” and “a little stupid.”

“There are things that you would change, but thank God, society, you know, is changing. So my film may seem dated at some points,” he said.

Richard said he recently revealed how his 28-year-old activist daughter Scarlett made him realize his jokes about women and people’s sizes in the film were no longer funny.

At the Cheltenham Literary Festival earlier this year, the director told how he promised his daughter Scarlett he would never make “fat” jokes again.

In Love Actually, Martine McCutcheon’s character Natalie, an aide to the Prime Minister, was portrayed as “chubby” and with a “big bum”.

And in the 2001 adaptation of Bridget Jones’s Diary, which Richard wrote, Renée Zellweger’s character was described as having “thighs like a tree trunk.”

Richard has since revealed that two decades later the jokes are no longer funny when he spoke during an interview with Scarlett.

According to The Times, he told the audience: “I remember being shocked five years ago when Scarlett told me, ‘You’ll never be able to use the word ‘fat’ again,'” he said.

“Wow, you were right. In my generation, calling someone chubby (it was funny) was a joke. These jokes aren’t funny anymore.”

Richard has previously admitted that his children didn’t like his jokes and said his films were starting to look like “historical documents”.

Speaking to Craig Oliver on his Desperately Seeking Wisdom podcast in January last year, the Blackadder and Mr Bean creator said: “In all the conversations I have with kids now, they don’t like 20 per cent of my jokes because they think they’re old fashioned.” and something is wrong.

“So I’m really interested in how a generation that grew up passionate and angry and meticulous about these issues can make a difference.”

As well as Scarlett, Richard has children Jake, 26, Charlie, 22, and Spike, and his wife Emma Freud, whom he married this year after 33 years together.